Fate Insane Night
by NHunter
Summary: A collection of unrelated oneshots about various 'wrong' heroic spirits being summoned for the Fuyuki city Holy Grail wars. Rated T because of violence and swearing. Updates will be erratic in both size and frequency.
1. Saber I

Title: Fate / Insane Night  
Author: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家 aka 灰色天使  
Genre: General  
Rating: T = R  
Characters: Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Zero cast and random 'heroic spirits' from all around the multiverse  
Warnings: AU; violence; strong language.**  
Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own any characters appearing in this collection of one-shots.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**Noble phantasms**"

* * *

Alright, here's my own attempt at writing what ifs about abnormal servants appearing for the Holy Grail wars in Fuyuki city. Most of these heroic spirits will be coming from various anime and manga, but some will also originate from video games, fiction books or even be real historical figures. Try to guess who's who before you reach the end of the chapters.

* * *

**Saber**

Kiritsugu Emiya looked at Saber he had just summoned in disbelief. Glancing down at the catalyst used for the summoning did not help the mage-killer in understanding what went wrong in any way. At last the members of the Einzbern family present in the chamber looked equally perplexed... Still, how come using Avalon as a catalyst didn't bring the legendary king Arthur from the Throne of Heroes?

For the moment Kiritsugu toyed with the idea that the elf-like woman in front of him was the creator of this divine mystery, but he quickly dismissed the idea: Saber didn't look like a blacksmith at all. If anything, judging by her clothes, she was either a scout or, possibly, a mercenary of some sort. No matter, even though she wasn't the one whom he was aiming to summon, Kiritsugu couldn't deny that this strange woman was powerful. Such a concentrated aura of controlled power simply could not belong to someone who wasn't worthy of being called a hero.

"She'll do." Jubstacheit von Einzbern said finally, apparently coming to a conclusion that the summoning of the wrong heroic spirit was not Kiritsugu's fault.

**~/ *** \~**

Gilles de Rais, the Caster of the Fourth Holy Grail War was scared for the first time since he had been summoned. What caused this? The answer was quite simple: Saber. Whoever that woman was, she was very very strong, no matter how much her appearance suggested the opposite.

She was a tall woman wearing brownish ragged cloak over brown leather outfit, which suggested that she spent a good part of her life living in the wilderness. Her hair was knee-long and silvery-blond in color, she had silver eyes and elf-like ears. But most noticeably, she was missing her left arm...

That, though, was not nearly enough to make her any less dangerous, as Gilles' summoned familiars could barely slow the strange Saber down before they all got torn to pieces by her blade. A blade that the mad Caster couldn't even see. Hell, to him it looked like Saber didn't even raise her sword nor did she raise her hand to strike the incoming hordes of his demonic beings.

Deciding that staying where he was for any longer would be suicidal, Gilles summoned a large horde of familiars and then started running, hoping that the creatures will be able to buy him some time. Alas, the Caster had really underestimated the power of his opponent: Saber caught up with him before he could cover a single block. In fact, she caught up with him so fast that the French man became quite sure that she wasn't all-human even before ascending onto the Throne of Heroes. If only he knew how right he was...

"I was made to hunt down and kill youma. And now I find someone who's spreading them..." The cloaked woman spoke, as she pointer her sword at Caster. It was a large longsword, a claymore, with the only decoration being a cross-shaped emblem near the simplistic hand-guard of the weapon... Despite his great knowledge on various pieces of art, including weaponry, Gilles found himself unable to determine what this sword was. "I can not consider you to be a human any more... **Quicksword!**" Before he could even blink, Caster found himself dead, chopped into hundreds pieces by Saber's sword.

* * *

**Saber**

True identity: 'Quicksword' Irene  
Series: "_**Claymore**_"  
Age: unknown, around 40  
Sex: Female

Alignment: Lawful Good, distorted to Chaotic Evil  
Strength: B+  
Endurance: B++  
Agility: B+  
Mana: D+  
Luck: D  
Independent action: A++ (side-effect of her noble phantasm)  
Magic resistance: C  
Battle continuation: B+++ - Only fatal wounds can make Irene stop her assault. Maybe...

Noble Phantasms:

**Half-youma: cursed huntress**: B+, support, permanently active.  
Irene is an artificial hanyou and is granted enhanced strength, speed and endurance. She also needed very little food to sustain herself during her life, which essentially means that now she doesn't need her master's prana to keep herself in this world. Though if she uses her **Quicksword** way to much, she might eventually burn through her own energy resources. Additionally, when facing demons or demon-related enemies, Irene gains plus half-a-rank in strength and endurance.

**Quicksword**: B+, defensive, anti-unit.  
Irene's signature move during her life. In short, this move is a barrage of sword swings with such great velocity that it is impossible to see them with the naked eye. Irene does not even appear to draw her sword when using this technique. Anything that comes within the range of her sword will be chopped to pieces. In addition to offensive usage, quicksword can also be used to deflect incoming attacks, both physical and direct-damage magical ones that aren't 'area of effect' ones.


	2. Lancer I

**Lancer**

Bazett Fraga McRemitz checked the summoning circle she had drawn once again. Everything appeared to be perfect, and the purplish-haired woman got ready to finally meet her childhood hero, Cú Chulainn. She was sure that the hound of Culann – the one whose very blood was said to be flowing through her veins – would be the perfect servant for her. And, together, they'll win this war! Deciding that it was the time to finally call him to this world, Bazett activated the summoning circle.

Unfortunately, it looked like the grail decided to screw with her. Even before the smoke from the summoning had dissipated, the magus could easily tell that she had summoned not the servant she was wishing for. After all, she was completely positive that Cú Chulainn was not a curvaceous girl in a mini-skirt. Or was it just that the myths were so very wrong about hi-... her?

The smoke finally dissipated, and Bazett could now clearly see that whoever she had summoned was not her childhood hero... Instead, she had summoned an oriental schoolgirl – she even had a schoolbag in her hand – though the one wielding a lance. And since whoever this girl was, she was considered a heroic spirit, she ought to be good... Shaking her head, the Irish magus studied her summoned servant.

The girl, despite still being a high-school student, was quite tall and had some rather impressive curves. Her only visible eye – the other one being hidden behind a curtain of girl's hair – was blue and held a coldness of someone who had fought many bloody battles... The girl had dark, purplish-black hair that was so long, it almost touched the ground. As for her clothes, this lancer schoolgirl was wearing short-sleeved white shirt with blue collar, tied right under her breasts and leaving the tanned skin of her flat stomach for everyone to see; yellow tie; red and slightly-worn fingerless gloves; blue mini-skirt that stopped good six inches above her knees and brown shoes with white leg-warmers. In her right hand the girl was holding a guan-dao lance, wrapped in a piece of cloth.

"I'm the servant Lancer of this Grail war." The girl spoke, bringing her purple-haired summoner back into the real world. "I must ask you, though, are you my new general?" Bazett, whose mind was still somewhere jealously checking her summon out, could only nod affirmatively.

* * *

Kotomine Kirei, his trustworthy black keys gripped tightly in his hands, crept towards unsuspecting Bazett, intent on chopping woman's hand with command seals off and taking those for himself, thus effectively making himself the Lancer's master... His plan, though, failed spectacularly: as soon as he raised his hand for a strike, a powerful palm thrust had him sent flying into the warehouse's wall on the opposite side of the room. As the fake priest tried to extract himself from the wall, he saw the Lancer approach him, anger etched on her otherwise pretty face. Bazett was still trying to comprehend what was going on, but Kirei had no doubts that in a couple of seconds the magus would join her servant in trying to kill him.

"You have tried to attack my general..." The Lancer-girl hissed, her free hand wrapping around the shifty overseer's throat and slamming him back to the wall before he could even think of anything to save himself from this current predicament... Whoever this girl was, she was much much stronger than Kirei assumed.

When he had failed to determine her identity – honestly, who wields a lance in the modern era? – the fake priest thought that he could still use her as a scout, as the power of the command seal would ensure that she'd survive her first encounter with other servants. Now, though, it felt like she might actually have a chance to win the damn war...

"I shall let my general decide your fate, rat." Suddenly she let his neck go, making Kirei stumble forward. But he got no chance to escape as a moment later a powerful knee strike landed on his gut, both making him double over and lifting him off the ground. Then another palm strike, this time to the back of his head, send the man face first into the cold and hard floor, finally granting him the blissfulness of unconsciousness...

**~/ *** \~**

Emiya Shirou knew that staying at school this late might have not been his brightest idea, not with the string on mysterious deaths spreading through the usually quiet city of Fuyuki. But he had promised to help around the Archery club today, and he just couldn't go back on his word, now, could he? Anyway, he had finished cleaning the club's shed and was ready to head home, when he heard the sounds of intense fighting coming from the school yard. Curious as to what was going on out there, the red-haired teen decided to investigate...

What he spied in the said yard left him rooted to the ground: two girls or young women were fighting there, clearly intent on killing each other. One of the two was a woman with long purple hair. She was dressed in a short black dress, long black fingerless gloves and long boots. As a weapon of choice she was using two nail-like daggers with seemingly endless chains attached to them. Her opponent was a girl, possibly a couple of years younger, with very long black hair. She was dressed in a very skimpy version school uniform plus red fingerless gloves on her hands. And she was armed with a freaking lance... What more, both girls were fighting on the level that should be impossible to attain for a normal human.

Still, for Shirou it was clear that staying where he was is dangerous: he could find himself in the crossfire at any second. So, the teen Emiya decided to do a very sane thing and get as far away from this unnatural battle as quickly as possible... Unfortunately, as he was turning around, his foot landed on a small branch lying on the ground. A soft crunch, though, was enough to alert both combatants about his presence. The fighting instantly stopped and both women turned their attention towards the red-haired teen, who was frozen in place... What happened next, Shirou wasn't sure, but in a blink of an eye, the lancer girl appeared in front of him, catching her opponent's dagger an inch away from his forehead.

"Lancer." The purple-haired woman hissed. "You should know as well as I do that civilian witnesses to our fights are to be silenced." His brain finally starting to work again, Emiya wondered, what the hell was going on here.

"Rider." The schoolgirl, apparently named Lancer, replied. "You should be quite aware that he is a magus and thus has the right to know about the Grail war." Now Shirou was torn between amazement at how the dark-haired beauty had identified him as a magus so easily, when the other two known magi in his school had no idea about that and wondering, what this Grail war was. He had heard his adoptive father mentioning it a couple of times on his deathbed, but he had not paid it much attention back then and so he hadn't investigated it much if at all. Maybe, just maybe, he should have had... Meanwhile, Rider was glaring – as much as it was possible with a visor completely hiding one's eyes – at Lancer, who was glaring back with determination in her blue eyes.

"Very well." Rider finally said, before turning her attention to still-frozen in place Shirou. "Kid, you have exactly thirty seconds to get the hell out of here." She said coldly and in an almost hissing voice. "After that I will not care if you get hit with my attacks. And I will make sure that Lancer will have her hands too full to care about that either. Got it?" Unable to speak, the red-haired teen merely nodded. "Good. Now, run." And he did just that. As soon as he was no where in sight, Rider turned back to Lancer. "Now then, where were we?" In response, the dark-haired beauty aimed her lance at her opponent.

**~/ *** \~**

Lancer calmly walked up the stairs leading to the Ryuudouji temple. Her general was quite sure that a rogue servant took residence here. And since all evidence pointed to that servant being of a caster class, denying him or her access to the local ley line was a task of the top priority... The dark-haired beauty was forced to stop when a servant previously not seen in this war stepped in front of her. Since so far she hadn't fought only Caster and Assassin, Lancer had to conclude that this was the later one... Even if the man didn't look all that well suited for his apparent class.

"I, Sasaki Kojirou, shall not let you go further than this." The supposed Assassin stated as he drew his sword – an extremely long katana. Lancer did not respond verbally, but had the cloth covering her guan-dao disappear instead... For a few seconds the two just stood unmoving, their eyes focused on each other. Then Lancer attacked. The dark-haired beauty did a fast thrusting attack towards her opponent's midsection, but the man proved himself to be very skilled with his unusually long sword and deflected this attack easily. Then, a mere moment later, he counterattacked with a wide-arc slash, forcing Lancer to somersault backwards in order to avoid it.

As soon as she was once again standing on her feet, the young woman raised her guan-dao above her head, before bringing it down, mercilessly striking the stairs she was standing on. For a brief moment Assassin wondered what was the purpose of this attack, but then he was forced to dodge a speeding arc of cutting energy that left a large chasm of destruction in its wake. Not giving him a chance to recover, Lancer dashed towards the purple-wearing swordsman, making a horizontal sweeping strike that aimed to cut the man into two.

Assassin blocked this attack with his katana, but it did cost him his blade as now it had a sizable dent where Lancer's **Seiryuutou** had connected with it. With this much damage done to his blade, the temple guarding samurai could no longer execute a perfect **Tsubame Gaeshi**... It didn't mean that he was giving up, though. Pushing the guan-dao back, the purple swordsman did a step towards Lancer and quickly swung his sword towards his opponent's neck in such a way that Lancer could not block it. She didn't. Instead, she just caught the blade with her free hand. It looked like her gloves apparently had some good armor in them as she suffered only some cuts from this action, instead of losing her hand.

"I guess, this is your end then." The dark-haired beauty said matter-of-factly, as she _broke_ the damaged sword before Assassin could pull it out of her grasp. Throwing the damaged piece of blade away, Lancer closed in at still shocked samurai, before sending him into a tree just outside the stairs' passage with a powerful palm strike to his chest. And this was only the beginning of Assassin's things going downhill...

* * *

**Omake**

"I'm the servant Lancer of this Grail war." The girl spoke, bringing her purple-haired summoner back into the real world. "I must ask you, though, are you my new general?" Bazett, whose mind was still somewhere jealously checking her summon out, could only nod affirmatively. There was a pause, before the summoned servant spoke again: "And if you're checking me out... Don't be shy – I might not be a complete slut like _some people_ I know, but I do enjoy a good night romp too. And I'm bi-curious." That got a rather predictable reaction in the form of the purple-haired woman passing out with a major nosebleed.

* * *

**Lancer**

True identity: Kan'u Unchou, 'the Goddess of war'  
Series: "_**Ikkitousen**_" ("_**Battle Vixens**_")  
Age: 19  
Sex: Female

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral  
Strength: C+ (can be boosted for short periods of time to A++ through usage of **Tanden ki**)  
Endurance: B  
Agility: A  
Mana: C+++  
Luck: C  
Independent action: B  
Magic resistance: C+  
Battle continuation: B+ - it takes fatal wound to stop Kan'u. Even then, she might keep going for a bit.  
Discernment of the poor: B - Kan'u can read immediate intentions of those around her with but a glance.  
Martial arts: B - Kan'u is a martial arts master as well as a good lance wielder.  
Eye of the mind (false): C++ - Kan'u is capable of sensing killing intent of other people.  
Cuteness: B+ - straight males get minus half rank to strength and luck while fighting against Kan'u.

Noble Phantasms:

'**Seiryuutou**' otherwise known as '**Qīng lóng yǎn yuè dāo**': C+, item.  
Kan'u's guan-dao lance. It can be damaged only by weapons known for slaying draconian creatures, while also dealing extra damage to opponents who have 'dragon' or 'beast' attribute. Note that this applies only to the blade of the guan-dao. It's pole is nothing more that an ordinary rod of dense wood.

**Tanden ki**: B++, support.  
Ability to manipulate internal energy of one's body to a high degree. Allows one to achieve superhuman speed and strength, or even allowing to manipulate an element of nature. Kan'u uses tanden ki to boost the power of her attacks to the point where even at 20% of her life force she could destroy a roof of a warehouse with a single strike of her lance.

**Matagama: the spirit of my predecessor**: B, support, permanently active.  
Kan'u Unchou is a spiritual successor of Shu general Guan Yu and possesses his battle skills and experiences. In addition to increasing her fighting capabilities, this always-on noble phantasm also boosts Kan'u's _Discernment of the poor_ skill to B rank, instead of C+ she'd have otherwise.


	3. Ruler I

**Ruler**

Even though the Grail was partially corrupted by **Angra Mainyu**, there still was a part of it that was Holy as it had been on the day the artifact was manifested into the reality by the combined efforts of the three families. And this part of the Grail could feel that something needed to be done to keep the summoned spirits under the control, for those like Caster, if left unchecked, could cause great amounts of destruction for no other reason than destruction itself.

It took the grail a lot of thinking, but in the end it came to a conclusion that no human-born spirit from the Throne of Heroes would be enough for the task. No, someone on the whole different level was needed. So, the Grail turned its attention to the lore of humanity – after all, the myths of one reality were always the true history of another... After a lot of searches, the perfect candidate for the role of the war overseer was found. And even though the Grail found some difficulties in manifesting that entity into the world, the Fourth war now had someone to keep the seven heroic spirits in line...

**~/ *** \~**

For quite some time things progressed normally and Ruler saw no real reason to intervene. Sure, the battle in the docks had been a light-show that could be seen for miles – Rider wasn't really trying to be discrete with his flying chariot that shot lightnings everywhere – but none of the heroic spirits involved in that fight had stepped out of the bounds imposed on them by the rules of the Holy Grail war.

Even with Caster was causing quite a lot of problems with kidnapping and killing children around the city there were no reasons for Ruler to step in: at the moment it was still within the rules of the war, no matter how much Ruler disliked the fact that something as horrible as this was allowed... It was all within the rules of the damned Holy Grail War, and so he just continued observing.

But when Caster tried to summon an evil monster from another dimension, intent on letting it devour both his opponents and the Fuyuki city altogether, Ruler could no longer stay hidden and out of the war. This time Caster had overstepped the bounds and needed to be dealt with...

**~/ *** \~**

Saber, Lancer and Rider watched in fear as the Ktulhu summoned by Caster slowly crawled towards the bank of the river. So far this demonic monstrosity proved itself to be essentially invincible. No, it did take damage from the servants' attacks, but it regenerated its damaged flesh before either of the tree heroic spirits could make use of those wounds... Archer's ability to rain infinite weapons upon his desired target might be able to eventually slay the beast, but the golden bastards was way too busy having his fun in the dogfight with F-15 jet plane hijacked by Berserker to help the noble trio out.

The situation was getting so desperate that Lancer was ready to destroy one of his noble phantasms – his **Gae Buidhe** lance – to let Saber heal her hand in hopes that her anti-fortress Noble Phantasm will be able to reach and destroy Caster hiding somewhere in the fleshy depths of the monster he had summoned.

"Heroes of the war." A deep voice suddenly spoke next to the trio, causing them all to immediately turn their attention towards the newcomer. He was a rather average in height bald dark-skinned man with golden eyes. He was dressed in slight-worn golden armor that most definitely wasn't created by mortal hands, along with a khaki cloak billowing behind him in the wind. In his right hand, the newcomer held a sword even more majestic than Excalibur itself. And just like the stranger's armor, this weapon too wasn't created by mere mortals. If anything, it looked like the sword had been forged somewhere in the Heavens. "The Grail had deemed Caster to be a rule-breaker and ordered me to stop him." Now it was masters' turn to stare at the warrior: none of them was aware that the Grail had this sort of a safeguard. "You will be allowed to continue your battles _**after**_ this monster and its summoner are defeated." Somehow, this man spoke with such authority that even Archer and Berserker stopped their dogfight.

"C-Can you really defeat this thing?" Waver Velvet asked in a shaking voice. Sure, even someone like him could feel the power radiating from this man, but will this power be enough where three servants had failed?

"On my own... No, I'm but a single warrior." The warrior replied. "But those following me shall be able to defeat this demonic spawn." As the unknown man spoke this, his clothes changed: first, a hood appeared, covering his face so completely that only black void could be seen. The man's armor became all-new and sparkling while his cloak turned pure white. Then a pair of strange ...attachments appeared on his back – they looked like a metal curves pointing towards the skies. And another moment later a multitude of ribbons of white-blue light burst forth from these 'curves', forming something akin to wings behinds the stranger's back.

At this very moment, somewhere up in the air, Gilgamesh finally admitted it to himself that here, in front of him, there was a being greater and more powerful that he himself was. It was not an easy thought for the golden-clad Archer of the Fourth Holy Grail War, but he'd be the greatest fool if continued denying the truth when it stood right in front of him.

"W-Who are you." Irisviel asked the angelic being that was now hovering several inches off the ground in front of her. The winged man turned his head to look at her – even though the Einzbern homunculus could see nothing but darkness under his hood – and, after a long second of pause, gave her the answer.

"_**I am Justice.**_" The strange Servant's voice was now much deeper and had even greater power to it, while at the same time coming from no distinct direction... The Angel turned his attention back to the Ktulhu which was slowly wadding its way towards the Fuyuki city. "_**Warriors of High Heavens, answer the call of your general!**_" The unknown man spoke as he had raised his sword towards the skies.

Suddenly, a good hundred of light beams pierced the heavy clouds which were hiding the night sky. And from using these beams like one would use a road, winged warriors of Heavens poured into the mortal world. Within seconds, the sky became filled with literally thousands of angels. Once the winged warriors were all there, their general lowered his sword till it was pointing at the Caster's monster, which was still moving across the river.

Heeding the unspoken order, the Angelic army attacked the Ktulhu, flying so fast that they became nothing but beams of light to the onlookers. And while each of the angels could do no more damage than a Servant, the sheer number of them was enough reduce the grotesque but great beast to something that looked like a giant chunk of meat that went through a bad blender.

"_**There you are.**_" The Angelic general spoke, before too disappearing in a beam of light. A moment later he was seen shooting _through_ the belly of the demonic monstrosity. When he could be seen normally again, he was hovering on his wings of light high above the river, his sword piercing both Caster and his spellbook. A moment later those two began fading away, while the Ktulhu, no longer having the source of prana to keep itself alive in this world, started slowly falling apart... Soon, the beast was completely dead, fallen apart into slowly disintegrating chunks of demonic flesh.

Once the Stranger could see that the monster they were fighting was defeated, he – still hovering in the air – assumed a praying pose, his legion of angels following his example, and they all mourned their fallen comrades: several angels got killed by the Ktulhu's tentacles in the beginning of the fight.

"_**The Justice has been served.**_" The Angelic general finally announced, before bowing his 'head'. His army returned the bow, before ascending towards the heavens. When they all were gone, he slowly flew to the levee and as soon as his feet touched the stone, he reverted back to his 'human' form. He then approached Saber, who was still looking at him in awe. "Give me your hand, young lady." The Angel commanded. Arturia, following the order somehow without even a thought, began raising her right hand, but was soon stopped. "The other one, please." Holding her left hand in his own tightly, the strange man suddenly drew his angelic sword and ran its tip right along the wound from Lancer's **Gae Buidhe**. "The curse if lifted." The unknown heroic spirit announced as he let Arturia's hand go, while sheathing his sword. "My presence here is no longer required. May this Holy Grail War continue." He announced then, before turning around and walking away.

He hadn't even disappeared completely, when the air was once again filled with the sound of explosions, as Berserker was doing his best to blow Archer's flying chariot, Vimana, out of the skies...

* * *

**Ruler**

True identity: archangel Tyrael, aspect of Justice, aspect of Wisdom  
Series: "_**Diablo**_" universe  
Age: unknown, immortal  
Sex: Male

Alignment: Lawful Good. Well, he **is** Justice incarnate...  
Strength: A  
Endurance: A+  
Agility: B  
Mana: A  
Luck: D  
Independent action: C - But can be considered Ex as he's manifested into this world by the Grail itself.  
Magic resistance: B  
Battle continuation: A - Nothing short of a decisively fatal to a human wound can stop him. Temporarily.  
Divinity: Ex - Archangel, aspect of Justice, aspect of Wisdom. Tyrael is a being on the level of a God.  
Discernment of the poor: A - Tyrael got this skill upon taking the mantle of the aspect of Wisdom.

Noble Phantasms:

**El'druin: the sword of Justice**: B++, item.  
Angelic sword that is capable of destroying anything that isn't righteous and can cut through both matter and magic. The level of damage done by this sword is proportionate to depravity of the target. Only true saints and Tyrael himself are completely immune to the effects of this sword.

**Archangel**: A, support, permanently active.  
Following the fall of reincarnated Tathamet (Diablo), Tyrael had accepted his wings back and is once again a full-fledged archangel. This means that he is capable of otherwise-unaided flight. And since he's an aspect of creation, he can't be truly killed even if his body is atomized. It may take him some time, but eventually Tyrael will reassemble himself back to his full glory.

**Ten thousands spears: the angelic legion**: Ex, anti-army.  
In times of need, Tyrael can call forth an army of the High Heavens. While these angels do not possess anything that can be considered a true noble phantasm and can actually be killed, each of them is at least a match to an average heroic spirit.


	4. Archer I

**Archer**

Smoke filled the room as Rin's summoning ritual concluded in a mighty heroic spirit being brought forth to this world. A moment later, though, the brunette was not so sure about the success of her summoning as there was a sound of someone tripping over something, followed by a loud crash and a feminine yelp. Did she summon some klutz sorceress, the Toshaka heir wondered.

As the smoke previously obscuring her vision cleared, Rin found herself looking at a Slav girl who was about her age – maybe a little bit younger – who was sitting awkwardly on the floor, holding something resembling an oversized black and red knife in her right hand. The girl had light-blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair, which in the reddish light of the sunset appeared to be pink...

As for her clothes, the summoned girl was wearing over-knee tight black boots; red checked mini-skirt with suspenders of all things; black vest with an orange emblem of some sort on the left side of the chest, it barely reached the girl's lower ribs and was unzipped from below making it rather blatantly obvious that she wore no bra. On her left hand, the summoned heroine had a black leather glove reaching her elbow with another, made from a material similar to that of the girl's pantyhose, underneath it; as for her right hand, the girl had a thick red 'lock' on her wrist there. Finally, on her head there was a red checked hat with a small visor...

The two girls kept looking at each other for maybe half-a-minute, before the blonde finally spoke:

"I'm servant Archer of this Holy Grail War. Are you my master?" Rin had to suppress the urge to groan audibly: what had she done for Gaia to hate her so much? A klutz Archer who, apparently, fought with a sword... Unless other masters had summoned equally outstanding servants, she might as well give up now. Still, the Toshaka heir nodded her head.

"Yes, I'm Rin and I will be your master." After a single second of a pause, the brunette continued: "Now, tell me about yourself."

**~/ *** \~**

Archer sat perched on top of the Big Bridge that connected the two parts of the Fuyuki city together, observing the old part of the town through her binoculars. Suddenly, a lone figure in the distance caught her attention. Focusing on it, the blonde identified it as almost definitely another servant of the war, even if it was rather suspicious that one would simply walk along the street, barely doing anything to conceal his presence.

"_Master, I see another servant, most likely lancer._" Archer reported through her mental link with Rin. "_What will your orders be? Engage? I can intercept him in one of the unused blocks about two miles away from the school._" There was a couple of seconds of 'silence', before the Tohaka heir replied.

"_Are you sure about that?_" True, the local school had no clubs where lances were used, but it'd be quite an embarrassment if they attacked an innocent person and not an enemy servant.

"_Well... He's wearing some blue full-body tights with metal shoulder pads. And then there is a red barbed spear on his back. I'm quite sure he's the Lancer._" Archer replied. "_So, what's your command, master?_" Rin, again, was silent for several seconds.

"_Very well, engage him. But make sure that there are no civilians around to see you two fight._" Nodding in acceptance of the order, the blonde un-summoned her binoculars and jumped off her perch, running down along the beam of the bridge – she needed to get to the area she had picked for her showdown with Lancer before the man went away into more crowded part of the city...

* * *

"Huh?" Was the Lancers reaction when another servant appeared in front of him. Sure, he had felt the prana coming from his apparent opponent from a mile away, but he definitely hadn't thought that he'll fight a rather thin girl who was wielding a sword bigger than she herself was. Somehow, though, his intuition was telling him that this wasn't a Saber. Oh well, does it really matter? He was used as a damn scout anyway. So, if this girl could put up a decent fight, he'd be rather happy with his life tonight...

The girl said nothing, attacking with a battle-cry in her native language instead. And Lancer almost immediately was forced to admit that for someone so small with such a big weapon, she was quite fast. But not faster than him – he dodged the wide horizontal swing of the red-and-black blade rather easily... The blonde girl twirled around herself, following the momentum of her own attack, before raising her sword above her head for another strike. Lancer once again easily avoided her surprisingly powerful, even if not really skilled – she hadn't really been trained in the ways of a sword, that much was obvious to the spear-wielding man – attack, which created a decent indent in the ground.

Deciding that this was enough of playing around, Lancer counterattacked, trying to use his greater speed to land a decent blow on the girl without doing anything that might reveal his identity. The sword-wielding blonde, though, proved to be quite agile and rolled out of the way of his lance thrust about as easily as he had dodged her attacks moments before. This only encouraged the warrior in blue to attack more fiercely, and soon he was pushing his opponent back...

Archer knew that she wasn't the best when it cam to close combat, but to be shown this once again in such a manner... Lancer was all but toying with her as he rained spear thrusts at her with the speed of a decent machine gun. Still, it all wasn't that bad, until the she was finally backed towards a pile of macadam. With such an unstable ground under her feet, it was only a matter of time, before her successive bout of clumsiness made her fall on her ass...

The knight of the lance smirked, when he saw his opponent losing her footing and falling down on the ground hard. And with her sword all but behind her back, there was no way the blonde could defend herself against his next attack. Thus, raising his spear above his head, Lancer thrust it towards the girl's heart... Much to his surprise, the attack failed as the tip of his **Gáe Bolg** met a red-and-black buckler shield that wasn't there a moment before. Looking closer, the Irish man could see that the shield his lance met was actually the somehow-transformed sword. Such weapons, while not really uncommon, were rare enough. If only he could think of what this one was, then he'll know his opponent's identity... Unfortunately, Lancer could not recall any magical sword like that one. Damn!

Raising his spear again, he aimed it at the girl's crotch – if she blocked it with her shield, it'd leave her neck unprotected for his next attack... Unfortunately for him, the blonde rolled away, instead of blocking. And, even more, she transformed her shield back into the sword and swung it horizontally, aiming to dissect Lancer into two... Of course, the man blocked this attack with his lance, but he was almost thrown away by the power behind the swing. Next moment he was thrown away by an unexpected and very powerful kick to his stomach.

Then things became even worse for the spear wielder: the girl's sword changed again, but this time not into a shield. Had the Grail not provided some knowledge about the modern world, Lancer wouldn't have known what a minigun was. But he did know, and thus a clear though of '_Oh shit!_' passed through his head when he saw six barrel start spinning...

Being fast and agile, Lancer was easily capable of dodging arrows raining upon him during his life. And after ascending onto the Throne of Heroes, he only got better. But still, dodging six bullets per second fired from barely twenty feet away... This was very hard even for him. And, by the looks of it, the ammunition of this devilish weapon was unlimited.

So, this was the Archer of this War. And, loathe he admit it, she was dangerous. Dangerous to the point where Lancer wasn't sure he could win without revealing his identity to the onlookers: he was no fool and could sense several familiars spying on them from the shadows. This meant, it was time for a tactical retreat... Dancing through the hailstorm of bullets – which, by the way, did so much more damage than a normal arrow would – Lancer ran towards an abandoned building, hoping that the concrete construct will provide him with the cover he'd need to safely assume his spirit form.

**~/ *** \~**

"Today, I've fought Archer, _master_." Cú Chulainn spoke, almost spitting out the last word, as he returned to the church. He really hated that slimy fake priest that had stolen him form his rightful master, but the command seal used ensured that he'd stay loyal to this bastard. "I have no idea who she is, but she appears to be teenage girl with rather ...indecent attire. I've forced her to reveal her noble phantasm, but I had to retreat after that. It also didn't help me identify her."

"And what that noble phantasm was?" Kotomine Kirei asked, quite curious as it was very rare for a noble phantasm to give no hints about the heroic spirit's identity – usually it happened only with unimportant heroes that were barely known in the world, but these were never good enough to force someone like Cú Chulainn into retreat this easily.

"That was some sort of a magical weapon. It is red and black in color and can shift between a buckler shield, a large knife-like sword and a minigun." Kirei raised his eyebrow: this sounded like a heroic spirit from the modern era. Yet, he absolutely couldn't recall any notable people from the last half a century that wielded anything even remotely like the weapon Lancer just described.

"That sounds ...entertaining." Gilgamesh spoke as he materialized leaning against the wall, across the room from Kirei and Lancer, a glass of fine wine in his hand. "King wished to see her fight." He stated, causing the Irish spear-man to groan: he didn't want to die from myriad of holes blown through him just because this golden bastard wanted some entertainment for himself...

* * *

**Archer**

True identity: Alisa Ilinichina Amiella  
Series: "_**God Eater**_"  
Age: 15  
Sex: Female

Alignment: Chaotic Good.  
Strength: C++  
Endurance: C+  
Agility: C - Alisa is prone to stumbling over her feet at random moments. Without that, she'd have B++ rank in agility.  
Mana: D++  
Luck: C  
Independent action: B+  
Magic resistance: D+  
Battle continuation: C+  
Clairvoyance: D+ - Alisa can't see better than a normal human, but is trained to follow fast-moving objects. This skill can be boosted to C+ if she uses military-grade binoculars.

Noble Phantasms:  
**God Arc**: B+, item: defensive, support, anti-person, anti-army.  
God Arcs are special semi-alive weapons that are created from Aragami's Oracle cells and have multiple forms. Four to be exact. In Alisa's case, these forms are: a military knife oversized to the point where it can as well be considered a single-edged two-handed sword; a six-barreled minigun; a buckler-type shield. The final form is an unleashed beast that is the base of the God Arc. In the gun form, God Arc can fire conventional, homing and even healing bullets. 'Conventional' ammo can be considered to be unlimited as it is produced by the weapon itself from the matter it destroys while in blade or devourer forms.


	5. Caster I

**Caster**

Somewhere within the Fuyuki city, a servant for the Fifth Holy Grail War was summoned. He was a man of maybe thirty years of age with short dark hair and dark eyes. His face would have been rather handsome if he wasn't so concentrated on something. He was wearing blue suit which was a common for all modern-era astronauts, though, a stripe with his name that should have been on the right side of his chest was missing. On the left sleeve of his suit, there was an emblem of some space expedition, apparently named 'Discovery I'.

"I'm servant Caster." The man introduced himself simply in an even and emotionless voice that somehow sounded actually like an artificial one. "And, are you my master?"

**~/ *** \~**

Saber stared at her opponent. While he did introduce himself as a Caster, he didn't look like someone who had any knowledge about arcane arts. If anything, the man looked like someone who ran away from that NASA organization from half across the globe. Still, the female King of Knights knew better than to underestimate her opponents simply because they didn't look dangerous, but not knowing what this man was capable of, she could do nothing but let him make the first move.

Caster didn't waste this opportunity and made a move with his hand, as if he was lifting something from. And, indeed, a moment later a parallelepiped rose from the ground. It was crystalline-black and very polished, yet, instead of being reflected from the surfaces of this construct, the light seemed to be absorbed by it. And with how well-proportioned this strange thing was, Saber had no doubts that it was an artificial construct, even if something beyond what humans could have created...

Meanwhile, Caster somehow levitated this strange parallelepiped – which had the proportions of one to four to nine – into the air, turning it till it had one of its largest faces looking at the ground. Arturia wasn't really any good with magic, but normally she could at least feel the more powerful spells being cast; here, it was almost like the black box was following the Caster's commands without him using his prana... This was most unsettling, especially since now the mysterious man was using the parallelepiped as his flying mount to lift himself high above the ground.

But Saber wasn't one of the greatest fighters for nothing and such obstacle wasn't something she couldn't overcome: using prana burst to augment herself, she jumped high into the air, aiming to strike Caster with her sword. He saw her coming, though, and created a ball of plasma in hi hand, before throwing it at her. She saw it, of course, but as she was in the mid-air, dodging this projectile was all but impossible, so Saber guarded herself with her sword.

And it was a good thing she did that: the heat explosion was very powerful, and had it happened any closer, she'd take some serious damage from it: for some reason it felt like her magic resistance did not work against such attacks... Even more concerning was the fact that Caster, who shower no hints of armor or magical resistance, managed to easily redirect the blast away from himself, before reforming into another fireball.

Gritting her teeth, the blond king rolled out of the blast zone, keeping both eyes trained on the strange man she was fighting. He was far more dangerous than he appeared to be, and Arturia had to admit that she had underestimated him, despite not intending to. She just couldn't have imagined that his 'spells' would be considered physical attacks and not magical... Plus she had yet to see what that strange crystalline parallelepiped could do. Not that she really wanted to: it was quite obviously a noble phantasm of some sort, and considering the powers that Caster had displayed so far, it'd be anything but weak. Better end this fight before she learned what else that man had up his sleeve...

Dodging two more fireballs, Saber dispelled the **Invisible Air** and took a stance that the survivors of the Fourth Grail War would undoubtedly recognize... The Caster, of course, didn't: while he was mesmerized by the beauty of Excalibur, he couldn't see it for what it really was – a clear mark that he wasn't a hero of the past times, but someone from the age when ancient lore was dying out.

Caster could see the light concentrating around his opponent's blade, and he could easily tell that whatever this attack will be, it will be very powerful and well beyond what he could absorb or redirect with his powers... Any further thoughts of his were drowned in Saber's cry of '**Excalibur!**' as she swung her sword towards him.

The first hint that something didn't go as planned for Arturia was an unusual behavior of her noble phantasm: instead of stretching into the distance like it usually did, the beam of light produced by her Excalibur looked like it had ran into an unmovable wall right where Caster used to be. And when the light-show finally died down, Saber could see that her opponent had used that mysterious black monolith he previously stood on as a shield. And it worked quite well, as her anti-fortress noble phantasm didn't even scratch the polished surface of the cryptically parallelepiped. The blond knight, however, had no time to stare at this wonder as Caster was throwing those trice damned fireballs of his at her again...

**~/ *** \~**

Gilgamesh was angry. He was very very angry. The reason? Some mongrel who was Caster of the Fifth Holy Grail War had taken what was rightfully his and destroyed it! That bastard had killed his Saber! Something like this was absolutely unforgivable in the eyes of the King of Heroes. And, thus, Gilgamesh threw any ideas of keeping low profile right out of the window and marched outside, intent on destroying that Caster slowly and painfully.

Kotomine Kirei just sighed: this war had already gone to hell, so this would not change much about it. He just hoped that Gilgamesh wouldn't do anything that will force the Mage Association to completely wipe the city in order to preserve the secret of magic.

* * *

Finding Caster wasn't all that hard for the ruler of the Uruk city. And while the arrogant demigod would likely say that it was so because how awesome he was, in really it had more to do with Caster not even trying to hide than with anything else...

"Mongrel!" Gilgamesh hissed as he appeared in front of the mysterious servant. "You destroyed something that belonged to the King, you shall die!" The bastard's answer was summoning a black crystalline thing from under the ground. The thing – whatever it was – floated lazily next to it summoner, which only served to make the golden man angrier: to him it looked like Caster was mocking him with whatever weird powers he had...

So, reaching for his golden key, Gilgamesh opened his Gate of Babylon. Somehow, though, it felt a bit more taxing than usual. Maybe his kingly powers had dwindled after he was reincarnated into this world by the cursed Grail? '_No matter_', the King thought as many unnamed swords, maces and spears emerged from the ripples of the Gate, ready to rain death upon the enemy of their owned.

"Last chance, mongrel." The golden king of Uruk said mightily. "Beg for forgiveness and I shall make your death relatively quick." Again, he received no reply. Brandishing his hand towards Caster, Gilgamesh willed his Gate of Babylon to start firing. The air immediately got filled with dust, but the golden ex-servant could feel that the mongrels presence was just as strong as it was right before their fight began. And this made the King a bit curious about the defenses that the bastard possessed.

Pausing his assault, Gilgamesh waited for the dust to settle. And he was greeted with the sight of that crystalline black parallelepiped floating right in front of the Caster, acting as his shield. And despite the multitude of unnamed noble phantasms that had been laughed at it, the thing didn't have even a single scratch on its polished surface. Now, that was some fine craft, and if he could have thought of some good use to this strange parallelepiped, Gilgamesh would have likely claimed it as one of his treasures... But since he could see nothing great, it's apparent indestructibility aside, about this thing Caster had summoned, the golden ex-servant had no desire to add it to his limitless collection.

Still, he needed to utterly destroy this mongrel. And as much as he loathed the fact that some unknown bastard forced him to use his most prized possession, the king of Uruk summon his trusty 'sword', Ea, from the Gate of Babylon.

"**Enuma Elish!**" He announced loudly as the sections of the 'sword' started spinning increasingly fast. Aiming his weapon at Caster, Gilgamesh spoke his order: "Wake up!" At that very moment a rip in time and space appeared at the tip of the 'sword', before being rocketed forward at a great speed, grinding at very laws of creation as it moved.

What happened next, the golden ex-servant didn't understand right away: the side of the parallelepiped that had been summoned by the Caster vanished, revealing the insides of the strange construct. Only, there were no insides – only a hole leading into the cold and endless depths of universe. And the dimensional rip created by **Enuma Elish** went into this wormhole, quickly disappearing towards the distant stars.

Then, Gilgamesh became aware of another thing: whatever this hole in space was, it was sucking everything in front of it into itself, and this included him too. Even stabbing Ea into the ground did not help much as the ground itself too was being sucked into this miniature black hole... Quickly summoning his second-greatest treasure, the chains named after his only friend, Enkidu, the King of Heroes used them to bind himself to anything that looked like it was unmovable in his vicinity.

While these chains indeed allowed Gilgamesh to anchor himself to several century-old trees and a boulder that weighted a good hundred tons, in the end, this proved to be futile as those too were sucked into the window towards the endless desolation of universe, along with the reincarnated King of Uruk...

Once he could see that the golden ex-servant was no more, Caster willed the monolith to close and surveyed the damage his most recent fight did to Earth. Most obvious was a huge area of torn ground that was created by the gates to the stars. It was a scar on the face of the planet, but Caster didn't really feel bad about making it: an abomination that he had destroyed was much worse as it did break the very laws of universe to continue existing away from its proper time.

Shaking his head, Caster allowed the monolith to sink back into the earth. Then he turned around and began walking towards the temple on the edge of the city. He could feel that underneath it there was a thing that had the potential to ruin the entire planet. And, as the guardian of life in the Solar system, it was his duty to end the existence of such things before they fell into the wrong hands...

* * *

**Caster**

True identity: Dr. David Bowman  
Series: Arthur C. Clarke's "_**Space Odysseys**_"  
Age: unknown, ~30  
Sex: Male

Alignment: Lawful Neutral.  
Strength: D - strength of a homunculus body David is forced into by the Grail. See (*) for details.  
Endurance: D+ - endurance of a homunculus body David is forced into by the Grail. See (*) for details.  
Agility: C - agility of a homunculus body David is forced into by the Grail. See (*) for details.  
Mana: Ex - David Bowman can freely convert almost any forms of energy around himself into useable prana.  
Luck: D+  
Independent action: Ex - Dr. Bowman does not require an external prana source to exist in this world indefinitely.  
Magic resistance: B+ - David can freely convert magic of up to B rank into raw prana for his own use.  
Territory Creation: E-  
Alien Dialogue: Ex - David Bowman can freely communicate with any intelligent creatures.  
Eye of the Mind (true): B - as was demonstrated on-board of 'Discovery I'.  
Pioneer of the Stars: Ex - "Oh My God!-it's full of stars!" David Bowman was the first human to complete an interstellar travel. Even if neither voluntary nor via human technology...

Noble Phantasms:  
**New Seed: a Star Child **(*): A (downgraded from Ex+ by the Grail), support, permanently active.  
Star Child is an immortal being without true physical body – it's but a conscious stored in the folds of higher dimensions. Yet, such being is capable of limited interaction with the physical world, mostly in the form of controlling various forms of energy. To make such opponent even theoretically defeatable, Grail imposed a homunculus-like body upon David Bowman. If this body receives a fatal damage, Dr. Bowman will be considered killed and will be removed from the war.

**Monolith: a Firstborns' Artifact**: A++, item: support, defensive, anti-unit, anti-army, anti-fortress.  
A monolith is a pure-black crystalline parallelepiped with unnaturally-perfect proportions of 1:4:9 that seems to be even absorbing light. Such monoliths are a creation of an unknown alien race, Firstborns, that existed long before humans even began evolving. Monoliths are impervious to any known forms of direct damage and can't be scanned with human technology, but are known to be capable of analyzing the world around itself and sending data across the galaxy to other similar monoliths. Dr. David Bowman, as a Star Child, has limited control over such monoliths and uses the so-dubbed TMA-0, the only monolith on the Earth, as his shield and 'sword'. For some reason, the powers of TMA-0 greatly increase when Tycho crater of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun...


	6. Berserker I

**Berserker**

Kariya Matou stared at the servant he had just summoned. The said heroic spirit definitely was not something that he was expected to be called forth with a piece of rusty armor that Zouken – Kariya refused to call that abomination of a man 'father' in his mind – gave him as the catalyst. After all, this servant wore no armor at all.

Instead, his garb consisted of loose light-blue T-shirt, light-gray shorts and some strange sandals. While the heroic spirit's clothes indeed didn't look like something worn by a great warrior, the man himself did look like one: he was rather young, but very tall and muscular teen with tanned skin, orange hair and reddish-orange eyes that held some restrained blood-lust in them... To be honest, even if he knew that he can order this heroic spirit around with his command seals, Kariya was still more than a little bit intimidated by this seven feet tall hunk.

"I'm servant Berserker of this war." The giant said in a surprisingly soft voice. "Are you my master?"

"Yes." Kariya wheezed out before dissolving into a coughing fit: the Crest worms he had to take into his body in order to get to the supposed level of other masters of this war were affecting his health quite negatively. "I am…" The orange-haired teen narrowed his eyes at him but said nothing.

"Well Kariya." Zouken finally spoke, amusement in his tone. "Looks like you summoned quite an… interesting Servant. Just remember our agreement, if you give me the Grail you can have Sakura-chan. But I won't put too much faith on a failure like you." With those words he turned around and stalked out of the basement.

"...I don't like that man." Berserker said after what seemed like minutes of silence. Kariya sighed somewhat in relief: it looked like and his servant had at least something in common.

"So do I, Berserker, so do I..."

**~/ *** \~**

While keeping Berserker in this world was not as prana-expensive as Kariya had thought, it still required took a lot of power, so the now-white-haired man was not sure just for how long he will be able to keep going with his deteriorating health. It was clear to him that his best chance to win the war was to defeat all other servants as soon as possible.

Thus, when the first battle of the Fourth Grail War began in the abandoned docks, Kariya wasted no time and ordered his servant to go there and do as much damage to other servants as possible. Most preferably, starting with Tokiomi's Archer... Berserker, being surprisingly gentle and considerate of others for someone of his class, seeing that his master was suffering from just keeping him around, eagerly complied, hoping that his quick victory will help him keep his master alive and (relatively) healthy.

Even though the docks weren't that far away, the orange-haired servant had arrived there only when the fight between Lancer and Saber had escalated to near free-for-all with Rider and Archer involved as well. And seeing that these servants were all very powerful, Berserker knew that without his main noble phantasm he didn't stand a chance against any of them. So, with a heavy sigh as he didn't like letting his beast side loose, he activated it.

A powerful surge of dark and tainted prana immediately drew the attention of the other servants present to the orange-haired teen they had previously _almost_ mistaken for a civilian who decided to investigate the light-show happening in docks... While he was already as big as Rider, upon his transformation Berserker seemed to grow even bigger; his skin turned purplish-gray while his eyes were now yellow with dark-gray sclera; finally, a multitude of horn-like protrusions grew around his face and on his shoulders.

Letting out quite a bestial roar, Berserker swung his clawed demonic hand at Archer. For a brief moment everyone wondered, what the mad servant tried to achieve with such an 'attack' from such a range. Their unspoken question was quickly answered, when Berserker's hand began stretching – well, more like growing longer as new segments appeared in it. Of course, such an attack was not something that would land a hit on Archer, but it still came way too close to that for the golden servant's liking.

"You dare to raise your hand against the King, mongrel!" Archer exploded with fury as the space behind him became filled with ripples, through which various weapons were brought into this world. "Die, you dirty dog!" And making an exaggerated jest with his hand, the red-eyed blonde send those weapons raining down upon the beast-like Berserker.

The mad servant, though, proved to be more agile than one would think, given how bulky he appeared to be, and so the raining weapons from Archer's noble phantasm were unable to hit him, even if there were several close calls. Angry at the lowly mongrel who dared not to die when he, the King, had all but ordered him to, the golden-clad servant, though, could easily recognize that with his current tactic, it will turn into the battle of attrition. And while the other three servants present on the battlefield so far did nothing to attack either of them, nothing could guarantee that they won't team up with Berserker in order to removed him from the war. That couldn't be allowed to happen!

Looking through the nigh-infinite amount of various weapons stored in his treasury, Archer pulled out a hammer that had its head cracking with powerful lightnings. Brandishing this hammer towards Berserker like a wand, the red-eyed blonde sent a powerful lightning towards the beast-like man. The said servant tried to evade the attack, but the lightning changed its direction and ended up hitting his left side with enough force to throw him into the crates a good three dozen feet away.

That wasn't enough to defeat Berserker though, and several seconds later he emerged from the debris with the only sign that he had been hit by that lightning being a burnt hole in his clothes. Letting out a primal roar, the mad servant grew several large spikes on his left hand, before tearing them off. Then he threw these spikes at Archer, as if they were darts. Unfortunately, this attack bounced harmlessly from Archer's armor and only made him more angry – which resulted in several more lightnings being thrown at Berserker.

This time, the beast-like man was ready and blocked the lightnings with a tower shield he had transformed his right arm into. Seeing that this way of attacking the mad servant would no longer work, Archer threw the hammer at his opponent (who dodged it, albeit far from easily) and began to once again rain various weaponry onto the advancing Berserker. But the monstrous servant once again had shown that he was very agile, despite his hulking form, and managed to close on in the red-eyed blonde with only a few minor wounds appearing on his body.

Then Berserker jumped at Archer, enveloping him into a monstrous hug, much to the golden servant's displeasure. Several pod grew upon the beast-like man's body. Then these pod moved, all of them turning to aim at the 'captured' heroic spirit, while a large build-up of prana in the form of balls of blue light formed on each pod.

Sensing that whatever attack Berserker was about to unleash could hurt even him, Archer did a rather wise thing and shifted into the astral plain, causing the beams of concentrated energy pass through the space he had been occupying moments ago without hitting anything... Re-materializing onto a lamppost not far from where Berserker was, the golden servant summoned his most trusted weapon: a sword-like thing that consisted of golden handle and hand-guard and three purplish cylinders instead of the blade.

"You dare to touch the King, mongrel." The blonde man hissed dangerously. "Your punishment for this shall be death!" The cylinders of his 'sword' started rotating. "**Enuma**..." Suddenly, he stopped charging up whatever attack he had in mind and scowled. Schooling his features back into regal calmness, the golden servant let his weapon disappear. "I shall kill you next time, dog." And with those words he faded away, apparently recalled by his master.

Berserker let out an angry roar, before turning his attention to the remaining three servants that appeared to have done nothing but watching his fight with Archer ever since it had started. Letting out another roar, the beast-like servant was about to attack them, when Kariya told him through their link to disengage: apparently the sick man was running out of his current prana reserves and continuing the fight might cause him serious health complications. Accepting this command, Berserker turned around and left the dock in a series of long jumps...

**~/ *** \~**

As much as he hated the manor – well, any place that Zouken inhabited – Kariya still decided to drop by so that he could check on Sakura. For some reason, though, he could not find her anywhere in the mansion. Did that ancient abomination let the girl out to play with other children? Somehow, Berserker's master doubted this. Still, as Sakura seemed to be not there, he felt no need to stick around the place that was disgusting him... The white-haired man was about to leave the building, when his servant materialized in front of him, preventing him from stepping out of the door.

"What is it?" Kariya asked more than a little bit angrily.

"There is something happening in the basement." Berserker replied, completely unaffected by his master's sudden anger. Actually, somewhere deep down he could understand the man a he disliked this place and its master just as much... Nodding, the white-haired master headed towards the basement, already afraid of what he'll find down there. The old bastard didn't 'disappoint' him: as soon as Kariya stepped in, he saw his adopted niece surrounded and continuously violated by a writhing mass of foul slimy greyish-green flesh of crest worms.

"That bastard!" The Matou family's master for the Grail War growled. Zouken, that monster in the human form had promised him that he will not 'train' Sakura for as long as he was participating in the war. Yet, here, right in front of Kariya's eyes was the proof that the old bastard was not to be trusted... And the worst part, there seemed to be nothing that he could do in order to save Sakura – they both had the cursed crest worms inside their bodies, so Zouken will be able to find them no matter how far they ran or how well they hid. Hell, most likely, Kariya thought, he won't even manage to leave the mansion with Sakura – the old bastard has the ability to kill him at any time he wished with those cursed abominations he put into his body... Still, the white-haired magus desperately wanted to do something to save his (adopted) niece.

"What are those things?" Berserker asked, his orange eyes firmly locked onto the mass of crest worms that _feasted_ depravedly on the little purple-haired girl.

"_Those are the crest worms. They are foul parasitic abomination and with them that monster Zouken can find us anywhere and can kill us whenever he feels like it._" Kariya replied through the mental link: if did that verbally, the old bastard would know that he was planning something and wouldn't hesitate to kill him right away.

"_Parasitic?_" Berserker replied, also via the mental link, apparently understanding his master's reason for such secrecy. "_I know I don't like my power, but, maybe, this time it can be used to do something good? After all, when injected into someone else, it'll forcefully kill anything else that doesn't naturally belong to the body._" The white-haired man became completely still while his mind went into overdrive, working with the revelation that Berserker had just made. There was a chance for him to save Sakura!

But... Even if he did purge the crest worms from her body, Zouken'd immediately know about this and will off him while also sealing all exits from the mansion. Berserker couldn't last very long in this world without a constant supply of prana. A day if he were to just sit absolutely still. If Berserker were to fight – and he undoubtedly would have to – his time in this world would be cut down to mere hours. And after the servant ceased to exist, there will be nothing to stop Zouken from capturing Sakura and putting her through the 'training' once again...

Somehow, it looked like the orange-haired heroic spirit once again had correctly guessed what was going through his master's mind.

"_The girl already possessed enough prana to sustain me. Transfer your contract onto her once you free her from the outside worm._" Berserker said. "_I'll try to purge those worms from your body, master, after I'm done with her. But even if it doesn't work, I'll remain in this world to protect her for as either of us draw breath._" Kariya sighed:this plan might actually work, even though he doubted he'll survive the purging of crest worms from his body. Well, it was not like he expected to survive the war anyway...

"_Alright, let's do it._"

* * *

Matou Zouken's eyes opened as he felt the crest worms implanted inside Sakura die in a way that definitely wasn't natural. So... That stupid wayward son of his decided that he could break their deal? It was time to teach the brat a lesson he'll never forget in his afterlife. Trying to sense the crest worms inside that traitor Kariya, Zouken, much to his confusion, found them to be dead as well...

Of course, he reasoned, someone as inadequate as magic as his son couldn't have had successfully removed the crest worms form another without a major sacrifice. Something like his own life, for example. Very well, this was a very nasty setback, but nothing that he couldn't fix. And he was sure that Sakura would enjoy the extra-extensive _training_ he was going to give her to make up for Kariya's betrayal.

So, raising himself out of his armchair, Zouken headed downstairs to collect Sakura and return her to her training. But as soon as he reached the stairs, the bug-controlling bastard found himself face to face with a very angry Berserker – already transformed into his beast form – with unconscious Sakura held tightly in his monstrous arm.

"Master ordered me to kill you." The not-so-mad servant roared , while raising his free and morphed-into-axe arm above Zouken's head...

* * *

**Berserker**

True identity: 'Bipolar' Juugo  
Series: "_**Naruto**_"  
Age: 18  
Sex: Male

Alignment: True Neutral.  
Strength: B / A - onwards from here, Juugo's stats are presented as: human form / beast form  
Endurance: C++ / A+  
Agility: B / C+  
Mana: D / A  
Luck: D+ / E  
Independent action: C++ / D++  
Magic resistance: E++ / C  
Eye of the Mind (false): C / n/a  
Instincts: C / B++  
Presence Concealment: D+ / n/a  
Battle Continuation: C+ / B++  
Mental Pollution: D / B++  
Animal Dialogue: A / n/a - Juugo can communicate with various animals and have them do his binding.  
Monstrous Strength: n/a / B - Juugo can boost his strength at the cost of more of his sanity.  
Mad Enhancement: D - Juugo is locked in his 'beast' state with additional '+' to his Strength.

Noble Phantasms:  
**Shinobi training**: C, support.  
Juugo possesses chakra but has no proper training in ninja arts. His skill set consists of a few basic techniques and support skills like surface and water walking.

**False Sage Mode: Mad Beast**: A, support, defensive, anti-person, anti-army.  
Due to an unknown reason, Juugo was born with an ability to fall into a bestial form in which he gains a lot of power at the cost of his sanity. At first Juugo was unable to control when he slips into his beast form, nor he was able to reason while in it, but gradually he managed to gain some control both over the times of transformation and over himself while he's transformed. In his beast form, Juugo can alter his body to suit his immediate needs, e.g. altering his hands into forms of various melee weapons. Juugo can also grow 'pods' all over his body and discharge powerful beams of concentrated prana from them. While he is in this 'beast' form, Juugo has the 'beast' attribute and will receive additional damage from certain weapons that are known for slaying various monsters.


	7. Assassin I

**Assassin**

Medea of Colchis, the witch of Betrayal and the Caster of the Fifth Holy Grail War studied the man she had just summoned to be a servant of her own. Secretly, she was still a bit surprised that she managed to do this as under the normal rules of the Grail War servants were forbidden from becoming masters themselves.

Anyway, the man Medea summoned was quite tall and had short, shaggy black hair along with a small short beard. He was dressed in an unzipped dark-gray jacket with a much lighter T-shirt underneath it and blue jeans, held in place by a most standard brown leather belt... The man had a lean body, but it was clear that he was strong and very skilled fighter. He was also blind: a walking stick and black sunglasses had hid some rather ugly scars made it quite clear.

Caster sighed. Why, why the Gods thought it was a good idea to give her a blind assassin as a servant? At least he appeared to be from the modern era and, thus, would have no troubles with blending in. But can he really fight? - that what this war was about, after all... Then, her rational side reminded Medea that whoever this man was, he became a heroic spirit while already blind, meaning that he indeed could fight despite having lost his sight.

"Very well, Assassin." The witch of Betrayal spoke. She knew that the man in front of her could only be a servant of shadows. "I want you to guard the gates of this temple until such..." She was interrupted by an angry Assassin, who went for his cane. Apparently, it was more than just a walking stick: Medea could see a lock near it's handle, meaning that most likely a this sword was concealed within this cane.

"You summon me into a war full of mighty warriors and expect me to just sit there and do nothing?" While Assassin spoke in an even and controlled voice, it was very clear that he was very very angered by a mere thought that he will miss all of the 'fun' of the Grail War...

'_So, Gods gave me a blind, battle-hungry assassin?_' The blue-haired mage from the age of Gods wondered in her head. '_Why do they hate me so much?_' Shaking her head at the thought that she'll have to spend a command spell so early, Medea issued an order: "**You will guard the gates of the temple.**" Assassin let out an almost animalistic growl, but could not fight against such an order.

"Fine." He hissed with obvious distaste.

**~/ *** \~**

Medea was sitting in the corner of the dojo, watching as her Kuzuki was sparring with the summoned assassin. Even with her constantly reinforcing him to make him stronger and faster, her 'fiance' was barely able to keep up with the blind servant. And from the looks of it, Assassin primary specialization was his cane sword and not unarmed combat... Whoever this man was, he was really good, and the blue-haired mage no longer felt bad about summoning him out of all possible servants.

Eventually, the spar ended with Kuzuki breathing heavily, while Assassin was barely winded. It was not much different from any other of their spars in this regard: the blind heroic spirit managed to see right through now-school-teacher's 'Snake' fighting style right away, never being caught by surprise by it. But it took him some time to fully adapt to such an opponent, and now he was actually working as a stimulus for Kuzuki to get better.

"Damn... I need a good sword fight." Assassin breathed out after he had gulped down a glass of water. Turning his attention to Caster, with whom he still had a strained relationship, he spoke: "If you wouldn't mind, _master_?" Knowing that the best way to keep a working relationship with this battle-hungry swordsman was to give in to his demand, Medea nodded as she gave some more prana to Assassin. The said man did a wide swishing movement with his right hand and a second later someone knocked on the dojo's door. Being very attuned to magic, the witch of Betrayal could tell that her servant had just performed a summoning of his own, and it was that new summoned spirit, who was knocking on the door.

This minor heroic spirit was a man in a creamy business suit, who had long pale-gray hair, steel eyes and golden earrings in both of his ears. He also had a scar going from the left corner of his mouth and all the way up to his left eye. He appeared to be armed with a Japanese katana, which he was casually carrying in his left hand.

"Onii-san! It's so nice to see you again!" The newly-arrived man exclaimed, as soon as he saw Assassin, acting as if he hadn't just been summoned by the said servant... Assassin merely gave a small bow of a greeting to this rather annoying ashy-haired man, before unsheathing his cane-sword from his walking stick. "A-ah! You want to fight me, onii-san? Why? You know that I'm not all that good and..." Apparently, the annoying man was also a bit of a coward... Still, seeing as Assassin wasn't going to give up his idea of using him as his sparring partner, the unnamed heroic spirit let out a deep sight, before unsheathing his own sword. "Fine. Let's fight."

For the next ten or so minutes, the dojo became filled with the sounds of clashing swords. And Medea had to admit that despite coming out as a slippery coward, the man her Assassin had summoned – she had learned that his name was Senji – was actually a pretty good swordsman. Not even near the level of his 'onii-san', but enough to be a significant danger to a normal human or an unprepared enemy master.

Though, Medea had to admit that she secretly hopes, Assassin wouldn't summon him when someone was attacking the temple: the prana needed to keep this Senji man in this world could be used in much better ways... But since at the moment they were in a relatively peaceful times, the witch of Betrayal felt like allowing her servant to sate his lust for battle in any reasonable ways that kept him within the boundaries of the temple...

**~/ *** \~**

Archer, also known as Counter Guardian EMIYA, traced his futuristic bow as he prepared for the attack. Then he traced his arrow: the spiral sword of Caladbolg. Even though it was not a perfect replica of the sword, fired as a broken phantasm, it was still a highly-destructive projectile. Powerful enough to kill almost any heroic spirit with a single hit...

What for did he need something this powerful? The answer was rather simple: after nearly a week of observations, Archer finally determined that the blind man sitting at the gates of the Ryuudouji temple was actually Assassin. And the servant of bow was going to kill that bastard before he had even a chance of counterattacking. After all, who knew what weird powers that abnormal servant had?

Alas, this plan was doomed to fail spectacularly as Assassin seemed to have sensed the attack as soon as Archer released **Caladbolg** from his bow. And the blind servant managed to get away from the blast zone just far enough not to be affected by distortions in space, which the broken phantasm created. And before EMIYA could even swear, he himself had to dodge as his sixth sense warned him about an incoming projectiles...

A moment later, two small throwing knives got imbedded in the tree trunk right where Archer's head used to be. This raised a big question: was this Assassin really blind if he could (almost) hit a target tree miles away with such a deadly precision? Well, no matter, the red and black clad servant decided as he sped towards the temple gates. He wasn't going to fail his self-given mission of eliminating the servant of shadows, and if archery didn't work, then he'll try to overwhelm that guy in close combat.

EMIYA was quite surprised to see that Assassin didn't even try to hide and was behaving more like a Saber would, waiting impatiently for him at the temple gates with his cane sword drawn. As per his habit, Archer immediately analyzed the sword. It did not possess memories of any special moves, but it was exceeding sharp. So sharp that, Archer was sure, it could cut through steel doors like a hot knife through butter. But at the same time, the blade was very thin and quite brittle, meaning that it was absolutely not suited for blocking powerful blows. And Archer was about to make use of this weakness of Assassin's sword.

Tracing his most trusted scimitars – **Kashou** and **Byakuya** – the white-haired heroic spirit threw them at his opponent, before tracing a copy of **Durandal** as he quickly closed in on Assassin. Much to Archer's dismay, the blind swordsman not only perfectly evaded the flying scimitars, but also the slashing attack aimed at his midsection. Whoever this blind guy was, he was good.

"This temple is under my protection, Archer." Assassin commented as he used the flat of his blade, supported by his forearm, to block another strike. "To pass, you will have to defeat me. Can you do that?" With those words he pushed Durandal away, before quickly palming the servant of bow to his chest with enough force to throw him several step back.

"We shall see." Counter Guardian EMIYA replied, before dodging couple of throwing knives. He quickly returned the favor with several traced dirks, but Assassin easily evaded those. Then he charged at Archer, his cane sword readied to take the red and black clad servant's left arm. Archer raised Durandal in order to block this attack, but blind servant quickly switched to attacking from another angle, forcing the white-haired heroic spirit to quickly roll back to avoid being cut into two at his waist... And even if Archer managed to remain unwounded, he lost a good part of his red cloak, not to mention he had landed in a very unfavorable position.

Assassin immediately made use of this advantage of his and prepared to stab EMIYA through his heart. Knowing just how sharp that cane sword was, Archer had no delusions that his futuristic body armor will offer him any protection. And since he knew he couldn't bring Durandal fast enough to block Assassin's thrust, the white-haired servant had to resort to tracing one of the few non-sword noble phantasms he had copied: Rho Aias.

The conceptual shield which was said to be the ultimate defense against any thrown weapon was already half-formed, when Assassin suddenly interrupted his attack and jumped to the side. A moment Arturia entered Archer's sight, her invisible Excalibur passing through the space the blind Assassin had just vacated.

"So it's two against one now, huh?" The servant of shadow asked, sounding not at all concerned by the fact that he now had two powerful heroic spirits opposing him. "It should be fun." He further commented as he raised his cane-sword for a new attack, his voice dripping with the lust for battles. Then he charged at Saber.

* * *

**Assassin**

True identity: Hijikata 'Blade' Mamoru  
Series: "_**Until Death Do Us Part**_"  
Age: unknown, ~35  
Sex: Male

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral – actually depends on which direction he aims his lust for battles at.  
Strength: C  
Endurance: B  
Agility: A  
Mana: D  
Luck: C  
Independent action: C  
Magic resistance: E+  
Presence Concealment: C  
Battle Continuation: C+  
Eye of the Mind (true): B  
Eye of the Mind (false): A - Mamoru can detect killing intent from a great distance and is able to locate his enemies using any of his remaining senses

Noble Phantasms:  
**Born to be a Fighter: Demonic swordsman**: C++, support, permanently active.  
Essentially, this is not as much of a true noble phantasm as it is a combination of Mamoru's almost legendary drive to find strong opponents to fight and of the skills he had acquired during his life. The skills include but are not limited to: swordsmanship, handling throwing knives, unarmed combat, modern firearms, black-ops tactics.

**Partners: Trusted ones**: B+, support.  
Another abnormal noble phantasm. Mamoru, should he wish to, can summon up to three minor heroic spirits. All of these heroic spirits have no noble phantasms of their own and possess E+ rank in Independent action, but Mamoru can keep them in this world for longer periods of time through spending his own prana. These minor heroic spirits are the following:  
* Igawa Ryōtarō (is summoned along with his van): a geek who never fights directly, but provides Mamoru with various forms of support from behind the frontline. Igawa maintains all of Mamoru's equipment, most notably, the ultrasonic system that gives him some semblance of sight.  
* Haruka Touyama: a young-teen girl with very powerful precognitive abilities. She can do a little bit of fighting against normal humans, but will be absolutely useless against anything on the level of a proper heroic spirit. Her precognitive abilities, however, can greatly help Mamoru in his fights.  
* Senji Tomagawa: an ex-mafiosi, who sided with Mamoru at one point. While he is not on Mamoru's skill level, he's a good swordsman and can be a danger to an unsuspecting master or a normal human. He's also a skilled spy and can gather intelligence on Mamoru's enemies.


	8. Rider I

**Rider**

As his summoning ritual ended with a presumed success, a powerful burst of raw prana sent Waver Velvet falling on his ass. The thick clouds of smoke that the runic array had released, was preventing him from seeing exactly what he had just summoned, but the young magus was quite sure that it was some awesomely-powerful entity that will ensure him a successful voyage through the dangers of the Holy Grail War.

When Waver had first discovered the existence of the Holy Grail War, he immediately knew that it was his place: a war, where only strength mattered and not titles and nobility. After all, in all of his time in Clock Tower, he had been looked down on because his family was a third generation Magus family. The fact that he possessed a lot of raw power didn't mean a shit to those inbred bigot fools, who dared to mock him for his rebellious thoughts that magus' powers depended on his personal potential and not on his breeding...

This war was his chance to prove them all wrong! Waver was sure that the omnipotent Grail will surely grant him the recognition and acceptance that he deserved. And the servant he had just summoned with his teacher's, Kayneth Archibald, catalyst will help him in this endeavor!

Waver Velvet was a bit disappointed, though, when the dissipating smoke revealed the servant he had just summoned. Instead of some big and powerful warrior form the ages past, in the center of the summoning circle stood a small girl that was a bit younger than him.

She had short blue hair and light skin. Her biggish blue-green eyes were hidden behind brown-rimmed glasses. She was dressed in what could be considered a school uniform: white shirt, black mini-skirt, white stockings and plain brown shoes. Over her shoulders she also wore an open cloak that was black on the outside and red on the inside. Leaning against her right side, there was a gnarled wooden staff which was at least a foot longer than the girl was taller. Finally, in her hands the girl was holding a tome written in a language that Waver could not understand.

And the girl appeared to be so engrossed in her reading that she didn't even notice that she was summoned... Well, she actually did notice this, but she still waited for her summoner to initiate the contact. Even though he was feeling quite uncertain about it all, Waver addressed the summoned female servant...

* * *

Maybe he had used not the best approach to the summoned heroic spirit, Waver Velvet mused as he and Rider were walking towards the house was staying at. Damn, his head still hurt from when the bluenette hit him with her staff – apparently, she thought that his wish of recognition by his peers was foolish at best and a waste of a miracle at worst... Considering that she was a queen, one that managed to get her throne back from usurpers, she might actually be right and one needn't anything but his own determination to get something as small as others' acceptance.

And as such, Waver's first quest was to earn his servant's acceptance. Through finding a more worthy use for his wish. Alas, it was actually far harder than the teen magus though – he wasn't sure that will find himself a new goal until the deadline Rider had set, which was in less than forty eight hours from now... No, Waver thought, he shouldn't give up just now. He still had a little bit time to think. Maybe, just maybe, some worthy idea will visit his head... But right now, though, he needed some rest after this tiring and eventful day...

**~/ *** \~**

Waver had failed to find a new, worthy, wish within the time frame set by his summoned servant, but Rider still accepted him as her master. According to the bluenette, she saw that he had been trying to think up some better wish to the Grail, and that was good enough for her. And with their contract finally complete, the young magus finally became a full-fledged participant of the Fourth Grail War.

The said war, though, had already started. Just the day before, Assassin got killed when he tried to sneak into Toshaka family's manor. Archer had obliterated him in a ridiculously-easy manner with his raining weapons. And even though the Assassin's master had been granted a sanctuary by the church, Waver Velvet had his suspicions that they'll see the servant of shadows again in the future: the scene at the Toshaka manor he had witnessed though a rodent's eyes smelled like a set-up to him. Rider was in agreement with him there: Assassin should have known better than attacking enemy position in the open like that.

And, tonight, the new battle will be happening. Both Waver and Rider could feel an enemy servant broadcasting his position from somewhere in the docks. The young magus was not sure that going there was a good idea – he was way too scared of the powers he had witnessed in Archer – but his blue-haired servant would have none of his cowardice and all but dragged the teen towards the docks.

* * *

The battle was already in the full swing: Lancer and Saber were exchanging blows at the speed that was beyond mere mortals. And even though they both were concentrated on each other, it didn't mean that they didn't notice a blue-haired teen girl armed with a gnarled staff entering the battlefield. They even noticed her master, who was hiding behind one of the containers in a distance. But just because they did notice, it didn't mean that they had stopped their fight.

They however, had to quickly jump far away from each other as the newly-arrived servant created a shower of tiny but deadly icicles. And while the two knights had avoided the worst of it, they both now spotted several minor cuts on their bodies, which had the two of them rather surprised – such a low-level magical attack shouldn't have had this much effect on them as they both had pretty high magical resistance.

Meanwhile, the blue-haired girl touched the ground with her staff, causing a mass of jagged ice lumps rise in a straight line, forming something like a wall, effectively separating the 'battlefield' into two parts... Choosing to go after Lancer first, the bluenette conjured a large sphere of very cold air around the hooked part of her staff, before throwing it at her chosen opponent.

It didn't travel very fast – hell, even a normal human would likely be able to dodge it easily – but it also wasn't that simple: something that Lancer learned the hard way when he tried to run past in attempt to get close to the casting servant. The girl had launched a single icicle at her earlier projectile, causing it to explode into cold powerful winds and tiny sharp snowflakes that created quite a lot of discomfort for Lancer and caused him to slow down as he shielded his eyes from the sudden snowstorm.

"You're quite a troublesome opponent, Caster." The spear-wielding servant remarked as he had to dodge an icicle the size of a century-old tree's trunk. A moment later Saber managed to destroy a section of the wall, thus she got to hear the blue-haired girl's answer:

"Oh, but I'm not Caster." Then the two knights were blown off their feet by powerful gusts of wind that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere as the bluenette hadn't cast any spells. The reason for these winds became clear a couple of seconds later, when a pretty large blue dragon with light-gray underbelly landed next to the staff-wielding servant. Then, much to everyone's shock, the said dragon transformed into a girl that looked like an older sister of her apparent summoner.

"Aw... Onee-chan's fighting again!" The dragonette-turned-human... whined? "Will there at least be a nice buffet after we win?" Somewhere behind the containers, Waver Velvet was already thinking about much emptier his wallet will become, if he had to feed another 'mouth'.

"But of course, Illococoo-chan." The dragonette nodded her head, before morphing back into that huge dragon form of hers. Her mistress climbed onto her back then, and the two of them rose into the air. "I'm Rider, by the way." Rider finally introduced herself to the two knights, before she and her familiar attacked them. Lancer and Saber found themselves subjected to a combination of powerful winds that swept them off their feet and raining ice shards that seemed to ignore their magical resistance. It was not a very nice feeling.

Next, another pair of servants arrived, causing the battle to escalate even further...

* * *

**Rider**

True identity: Charlotte Hélène d'Orléans de Gallia / Tabitha the Snowstorm  
Series: "_**Zero no Tsukaima**_"  
Age: 16  
Sex: Female

Alignment: Chaotic Good  
Strength: D  
Endurance: C+  
Agility: B+  
Mana: A  
Luck: D  
Independent action: C++  
Magic resistance: C  
Territory Creation: D  
Battle Continuation: C+  
Eye of the Mind (false): B  
Riding: B++ - Tabitha can ride all normal creatures, as well as her dragon familiar, Illococoo. Other divine or phantasmal beasts are beyond her abilities, though.

Noble Phantasms:  
**Square mage**: B, support, defensive, anti-person, anti-army.  
Charlotte is an elemental mage who can control to some degree all four of the base elements. Her primary elements, however, are wind and water, which she skillfully combines in her ice and blizzard spells. Majority of her battle spells are a form of conjuration and as such are treated as physical attacks, making magical resistance only half as effective against them. Charlotte is incompatible with modern magics.

**Sylphid: magical partner rhyme dragon**: A, support, anti-person, anti-army.  
This noble phantasm is actually what allows Charlotte to qualify as rider. Sylphid – or, more correctly, Illococoo – is a female rhyme dragon that is Charlotte's familiar. Illococoo's element is wind as she is capable of causing great destruction on her own, though, more often than not, she'll serve as her master's mount. Illococoo is a magical dragon with an ability to assume human form. While in human form, Illococoo pretends to be Charlotte's younger sister.


	9. Avenger I

**Avenger**

Bazett Fraga McRemitz slowly regained her consciousness. Even without opening her eyes, she could tell that was in a hospital – that smell could not be of any other place. She still couldn't feel her right arm, meaning that it all wasn't a dream and that bastard priest had betrayed her and stole her Cu Chulainn from her... That made another question enter her mind: how it was that she was still alive? The fake priest was skilled executioner and his attack would have her bled to death before an ambulance could reach the deserted warehouse.

"So, you're awake." A deep male voice spoke next to her. "You know, you're quite a tough girl, master... Sorry about your arm, though – the medics that that even if they could reattach it, you won't be able to use it anyway." Opening her eyes, Bazett saw the man, who was calling her 'master'. Even based on his voice alone she knew it wasn't Cu Chilainn who somehow had escaped Kirei, but her savior still surprised her quite a bit.

He appeared to be tall man with impressive muscles. He was bald and had a very tanned skin, which spotted a scar here and there. His garb consisted of futuristic gray armor vest worn over naked torso, black pants and black combat boots. Finally, his eyes were hidden behind goggles that were tinted so much that Bazett wondered where he could actually see anything with them on.

"W-who are you?" The now-one-handed magus asked in a dry and raspy voice. Of course, she could feel the great power radiating from the man – he clearly was a heroic spirit – but she could not tell which one he was.

"I'm Avenger." The man introduced himself. He stood up and walked to the window from where he could take a look at the Fuyuki city. "The grail still sees you as a legitimate master, and thus had me summoned to be your servant." Bazett raised her remaining arm from under the covers. Indeed, it now had a 'tattoo' of command seals on it.

"V-very well." She said after a pause. "Let's make Kirei pay for what he did... and win this Grail war."

**~/ *** \~**

The spear-man in blue body suit was walking towards the local school – his disgusting new master had ordered him to scout this part of the town tonight – when he felt a presence of another servant nearby. The said servant was actually closing in on him, so Lancer, deciding that his current position would make a nice battle ground, simply waited for his opponent to appear.

Maybe a minute has passed, but the unknown servant was yet to appear in front of him. The hound of Culann began suspecting that he was actually being followed by an inadequate assassin. His guess was all but proven correct when an ornate knife was thrown at him. And despite being very agile and able to dodge pretty much anything, Lancer failed to avoid this, undoubtedly cursed, knife. And even his enchanted armor failed to stop the projectile... Surprisingly enough, the knife wasn't poisoned or anything, and it dealt only a small bleeding wound that the blue spear-man was sure he could ignore completely.

It was then his attacker revealed himself, stepping out of a shadowed back alley. This man most definitely didn't look like an assassin, nor did he possess a presence concealment skill of any meaningful rank. But if this wasn't an Assassin, then who was this heroic spirit? Rider? Or maybe even Saber? – those twin daggers the man had on his belt did look suspicious...

Well, no matter. Twirling his **Gae Bolg** above his head, Lancer charged at the strange heroic spirit, who used his daggers to block the cursed spear. At least this guy wasn't all that bad, Lancer thought, anticipating an entertaining fight. But as the two continued exchanging blows, Cu Chuliann came to a conclusion that his opponent wasn't all that great either: sure, he was proficient with those daggers, but he wasn't a true master... Though the unknown heroic spirit surely had a great endurance, and even after five minutes of non-stop fighting, he still looked as full of energy as he was when he first entered this battle.

Then Lancer switched his attention back to himself. For some reason he felt weaker and more tired than he should. Glancing down, he saw a possible and very likely reason for this: the wound on his stomach was still open and bled as if it had just been dealt. So that knife was cursed after all... Sudden movement brought the blue-clad spear-man back to reality: his opponent was attacking him, and the hound of Culann was forced to jump away in order to evade the daggers the unknown servant was swinging at him.

The next moment Lancer had to duck under the very same dagger – they were thrown at him – but in doing this, he left himself completely defenseless against the goggle-wearing man, who charged at him with his bare fists... And Cu Chulainn had to admit that that right hook did hurt. Still, it was nothing he couldn't shrug off, and so the fight continued – the unknown servant now using an armature rod he got from somewhere as a makeshift sword.

Of course, no normal object could be comparable to a noble phantasm, but they most definitely were much more common and as such the mysterious heroic spirit could easily replace his improvised weapons as soon as Lancer broke them... This was quickly turning into a battle of attrition, and Lancer could see that he'd lose it. Thus, he needed either to disengage and leave, or to finish this guy off. And the second alternative was much more favorable, even if it went against his master's order... Jumping further back to put some more distance between them, Lancer reared his spear.

"**Gae- !**" Unfortunately, it looked like he had underestimated the power of a command seal: it somehow sensed that he was going to attack with a sure-kill technique and stopped him. And even worse, the jolt of pain that accompanied it had shocked him enough for the unknown servant to close in on him and deliver a painful uppercut...

Today most definitely wasn't his day, Cu Chulainn decided. And since he had no ways to kill his opponent fast – the goggle-wearing man proved to be way too resistant to damage to go down quickly from normal attacks – the blue-clad spear-man decided that it was time to retreat. After all, the order his master had given him said nothing about not killing enemy servants on the second meeting... Landing a powerful kick on his opponent's stomach and making him stumble a few steps back, Lancer began fading out of the real world as he assumed his spiritual form. But before he could completely disappear, the unknown servant spoke.

"And tell your slimy backstabbing master that Avenger is coming after him!" For a moment the hound of Culann wondered, whether he had indeed been fighting against a servant of a class outside of the canonical seven, but he then accepted this possibility as just an oddity of a Grail war. More importantly, though, it looked like this servant knew exactly who his (new) master was, and what he had done to get him... This meant... His original master was still alive! Were he in a physical body, Cu Chulainn would have smiled: he really liked that girl, whereas the same most definitely couldn't be said about the fake priest he had to serve now.

* * *

**Avenger**

True identity: Richard B. Riddick  
Series: "_**Riddick series**_"  
Age: unknown, appears to be around 40.  
Sex: Male

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral  
Strength: B+  
Endurance: A+  
Agility: A  
Mana: E  
Luck: C  
Independent action: C  
Magic resistance: E+  
Bravery: A+  
Instincts: A  
Presence concealment: D  
Projectile: Daggers: B  
Clairvoyance: D - Riddick can track fast-moving objects. Otherwise his vision is of normal sharpness.  
Night vision: A - Riddick's eyes are enhanced to see clearly in the darkness.  
Battle Continuation: B+  
Eye of the Mind (false): B  
Riding: C++ - Riddick is a skilled pilot and can ride any vehicle that needs as little as one pilot to operate. However, he has troubles when trying to ride animals.

Noble Phantasms:  
**Furyan warrior**: B+, support, permanently active. Riddick is a Furyan and is one of the strongest among his race. He is much tougher than a human, has much faster natural regeneration, possesses greater stamina and almost ridiculously-high pain threshold. His senses are more acute than human's – even before the surgery he could see well in the darkness. Additionally, Riddick can release a powerful energy shock-wave to kill or severely damage nearby enemies, but he can't do this consciously and the trigger for this ability is unknown.

**Irgun's knife: **"**Bleed to death, my enemy**": C+, anti-person. An ornate knife, which became cursed because of the Riddick's legend. When Riddick throws it at his enemy, a luck check is performed. If successful, the knife ignores all armor and all magical defenses and deals a bleeding wound that can not be healed until the end of the fight and will slowly reduce target's life to its absolute possible minimum. Effect will be removed if Riddick is killed or if the fight ended without clear winner. This noble phantasm can be used on each enemy only once, successfully or not, within one fight.

**All for the victory**: B, support, permanently active. A bit similar to Lancelot's "Knight of Honor" noble phantasm. Riddick can wield any weaponry or items that can be conceptualized as such, regardless of how it was created or its time of origin, with deadly skill and precision. However, these weapons do not gain a status of noble phantasms, nor can this ability affect 'weapon containers' such as jet fighters.


	10. Archer II

**Archer / Launcher**

Emiya Kiritsugu stared at the heroic spirit he had just summoned. Even with Avalon as a catalyst, he didn't summon legendary king Arthur – the servant in front of him most definitely wasn't the most famous ruler of England.

For one, it was a girl in her late teens with light-gray hair and cold blood-red eyes. Her clothes consisted of gray jacket with a hood and black lists on the collar and along the bottom; almost indecently-short black shorts; dark-purple stockings and black combat boots. Attached to the girl's right thigh there was a couple of military bayonet knives in holsters... Finally, behind the girl's back there was a strange and somehow menacing device that appeared to be directly connected to her body with three rather thick cables.

Kiritsugu looked at the summoned heroic spirit's feet once again to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Alas, he wasn't and this girl was indeed levitating herself several inches above the floor.

"Servant Archer reporting in, _commander_." She introduced herself in a rather cold and unfriendly, slightly hissing voice. Actually, coupled with the scowl etched on her face and the almost visible dark aura of power, this made her appear threatening enough for her master and everyone else in the chamber to shiver unconsciously... At least she was powerful, there were no doubts about it.

* * *

Irisviel and Archer were sitting on the balcony of the Einzbern castle, having some tea... Well, Iri was having some tea while the other whitehead just sat there, her eyes trained on Kiritsugu playing with little Ilya down in the castle's yard. Maybe a day after her summoning, Archer had requested... well, demanded for that machine to be detached from her body.

Apparently, it was doing more to limit her psychic powers than anything else. That, and it made truly impossible for the white-haired heroic spirit to pass herself as a normal human – since she hadn't really died, she couldn't dematerialize into a spirit form, and thus had to remain visible to everyone all the time... Not to mention that Iri couldn't imagine how one could even try to rest with that monstrosity hanging attached to their back. Maybe it was one of the reasons for Archers bad moods?

Yes, the heroic spirit that Kiritsugu managed to summon was moody, aloof and violent. True, Archer had mellowed out a bit over the last couple of weeks, but she still tended to use excessive amounts force all the time. She had almost killed Jubstacheit when the head of the Einzbern family said something bad in her address when she within earshot. Only timely intervention of both _the_ magus killer and Irisviel herself had saved the man from becoming a target for various knives Archer was about to launch at him with her psychokinesis... And if this was normal for her, one could only imagine what monster the white-haired servant would turn into while on her PMS...

Another peculiar detail about Archer was that strange, invisible aura that seemed to surround her at all times. Any normal human, even as in control of oneself as Kiritsugu, who spent more that a couple of hours in her presence began getting impatient, irritable and snappish. Homunculi, however, appeared to be immune to these effects, and this was another, unspoken, reason for why Irisviel was to be Archer's minder for the duration of the war.

**~/ *** \~**

Tokiomi Tohsaka watched as the smoke clouds parted, revealing the servant he had just summoned. And much like he had planned, this servant was the one and only King of Heroes, otherwise known as Gilgamesh, the king of Mesopotamia and the entire ancient world. He was a tall and handsome man with blond hair, red eyes and seemingly-permanent arrogant smile on his face.

"Are you the one to have summon me, Rider, into this world?" The golden servant inquired, even if the answer was rather obvious. "Answer to the King when he ask you a question!" Gilgamesh pressed when Tokiomi remained silent for longer than the golden-clad heroic spirit deemed tolerable.

"Y-Yes, I am, your highness." The head of the Tohsaka family replied, while trying to understand, why the King of Heroes was summoned as Rider instead of Archer... In the end, he decided that it was not really important: someone as great and powerful as his servant could fit into this container as well without any penalties. That, and as a Rider the Gilgamesh had a lesser level of Independent action and thus would be a bit easier to control...

**~/ *** \~**

Waver Velvet was actually thrown backwards a bit when his ritual circle successfully summoned a heroic spirit from ages past to fight on his behalf in the Fourth Grail War. The said heroic spirit was a huge man with large muscles. He had sternly chiseled features, sharp eyes and burning-red hair and beard. Most of his body was covered by an ornate reddish mantle, with some bronze armor worn underneath it.

"I'm servant Saber, and I'm going to conquer this world!" The summoned heroic spirit bellowed out, much to Waver's chagrin – with how loud he was, the young magus was quite sure that the entire Fuyuki city had heard him.

**~/ *** \~**

They had arrived to the Fuyuki city three days ago, just right on time to witness the first – and very anticlimactic – battle of the Fourth Grail War. According to the surveillance set up by Kiritsugu all around the city, Assassin fell under Rider's attacks while trying to sneak into Toshaka's manor... Archer, though, had her doubts about the death of Assassin: according to her, this was a mere deception. After all, the servant of shadow would have a much easier time in the war if his enemies thought him to be dead. Unfortunately for those who wanted to believe that one of the servants was already out, Archer did have a point here...

Even with the threat of Assassin lurking in the shadow, as well as five other servants still being alive, Irisviel still decided that she wanted some fun in the city. And since the Grail War was a secret from those unaware of magic, no battles ever happened in the broad daylight. Thus, Iri was sure she'd be alright, especially since she was dragging Archer along with herself.

After the whole day of exploring the wonders of Fuyuki, they ended up on a wild beach near the edge of the city. Having never been out of the Einzbern castle, the homunculus lady was mesmerized by the sea and she just couldn't resist walking through the gentle waves, feeling the sand under her bare feet.

Archer was standing firmly on the shore maybe twenty feet away from her 'minder'. With her mindset being created the way it way, the psi-agent, even after being corrupted by normal and peaceful life for over half a month, had no desires to join her mistress in her fun. That, and she was actually feeling very tired and sore – for someone who was used to move around with levitation, walking on her two feet was not easy... Suddenly a frown appeared on Archer's face.

"Mistress, a hostile unit detected. Most possibly, it is an enemy heroic spirit." She spoke, her red eyes still fixed on Iri. "Around thousand meters at ten o'clock. Your orders? Engage?" Looking in that direction, Irisviel could see silhouettes of cranes and masses of crates. According to the plans her husband had shown her, those were the abandoned docks of the harbor. A prefect place for the battle between servants... Then, she felt a strong flare of prana that could only be created by a heroic spirit, coming from the docks: someone had chosen his battlefield and was now inviting others to fight him.

"Yes." The Einzbern homunculus replied. "I'll contact Kiritsugu. He should have... Eep!" She was really surprised when she suddenly felt Archer lift her into the air with psychokinesis. The white-haired servant waited for a couple of seconds to let her mistress relax – she used this time to bring Iri's boots to her – before she began levitating towards the docks, pulling her 'minder' along.

* * *

Diarmuid ua Duibhe, the Lancer of the Fourth war, was standing on the edge of a large empty area in the dock, waiting for other servants to answer his 'invitation'. He needn't have waited for long as just a minute after he had flared his prana he got the first two 'guests'. The both were females with white hair and red eyes and actually looked a little bit alike, but he had no troubles in identifying which one of the two was an enemy servant. No, the question was, which class that girl in gray jacket belonged to. He'd say that she was a Caster, but that levitation she was using actually didn't appear to be magical in origin.

"It troubles me that to one I'm facing in combat, I can't identify myself. I hate this rule..." Diarmuid spoke, as he walked into the center of what was about to become a battlefield in a few moments. "I'm Lancer of this war." He introduced himself.

"Archer." The white-haired heroic spirit returned the favor, while a transparent bubble of energy surrounded her suspended in the air form... Once again, it didn't feel like what she was doing was magic. How curious. Back when he was still alive, Diarmuid remembered hearing stories about shamans who could move small stones with nothing but exertion of their will. Was Archer someone with similar – but much more powerful – ability? If so, this was going to be a tough fight. Interesting one, though.

"Be careful." Archer's master said as she stepped back. "I shall support you with my healing magic but..." She was interrupted by her servant.

"No, my shield is not intent-based..." Diarmuid immediately filed this little piece of info into his memory. It might prove to be useful later on. "And I will not lower it until the end of the fight." After a brief pause, Archer added: "Don't worry, mistress, I shall be alright." With a barely noticeable movement of her finger, the white-haired servant raised several crates around her into the air.

'_Damn._' Lancer swore in his mind. As a melee fighter, he knew he will have troubles when facing someone who could attack him form a distance. And when that someone could lift several tons into the air with barely any effort... But he was going to win this war, and that was not something he could achieve by running away at the first sign of any difficulty. After all, only those who defied fate in order to achieve victory became heroic spirits in the first place.

Archer didn't waste any time and 'threw' the crates at Lancer, however he didn't even try dodging, cutting them all apart with his spears instead. Only to find out a moment later that his opponent could still control those crates – or what was left of them. Now, he simply had to dodge as no one could block no less than fifteen attacks coming from all directions. The worst part – if he tried cutting that scrap apart, he'll only create more projectiles for Archer to attack him with. Damn. That thought was also shared by lord Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, Lancer's master, and it was what gave him away.

"You can't hide from me." Archer muttered under her breath as he withdrew a strange object from somewhere on her jacket. Even with the knowledge of the modern world provided by the Grail, Lancer could not identify precisely what it was. But one thing was clear: it was a weapon... Now, where this one was going to strike? His eyes widened when the 'dart' was banished towards the roof of the warehouse where his master was hiding.

'_How did she notice him there?_' The servant of spear wondered, while rushing to protect his master. He barely managed to throw the man behind the ridge of the roof, before this 'dart' exploded violently. Thankfully, it wasn't a noble phantasm or, otherwise, Lancer was sure even his armor wouldn't have protected him from the blast. The next moment he got a dozen pieces of sharp but rusty metal form the crates he had destroyed earlier hitting him in his back. Not a nice feeling, even if it was nothing that a knight-class heroic spirit couldn't survive.

Without stopping her assault on Lancer – his master was of a no threat – Archer produced another dart, this time banishing it towards a large crane not far away from the current battlefield. Just before the projectile exploded, Diarmuid saw someone flicker away from that crane. Well, at least they wouldn't be spied upon anymore. Though he still wondered how Archer could notice anyone here – he sure as hell saw nothing until the strange girl had drawn his attention there with her attack. Who the hell she was? Psychokinesis and some ridiculously-powerful sensing abilities... She was a very worthy foe.

Suddenly, Archer's assault ceased, giving Lancer a much needed breather. Since so far the white-haired servant proved to be capable of controlling a great number of objects with her psychokinesis, only something major could have made her switch away from her target... And Diarmuid saw what it was a moment later: a large bull-driven chariot that was spitting lightnings in all directions was charging towards the battlefield, aiming to trample Archer over.

The girl, though, proved to be more than capable of dealing with such threat even without resorting to dodging – she levitated several crates into the chariot's way to slow it down, before somehow establishing her control over the bulls and sending them heads-first into the ground, causing the chariot itself to topple over and send its passengers flying out of it. A very large red-haired man in red mantle – obviously a servant – effortlessly caught a boy that was with him midair, before landing safely not that far away from Irisviel.

"Hohoho!" The newly-arrived servant let out a thunderous, booming laughter. "That is some magnificent power you have there, Archer." The whitehead did not show any reaction to this compliment, but she did keep an eye on him in case he decided to attack her mistress. "Anyway!" The man continued. "My name is Iskandar, the King of Conquers! I'm of Saber class in this Holy Grail War!" This introduction was followed by his master arguing that the whole point of this war was for one's identity to be kept a secret, but Saber didn't appear to be even listening to him. "Fate has brought us together to battle for the Grail, but first..." And the servant of sword made a ridiculous proposition that basically asked others to grant him the grail and become his subordinates as he conquered the world. Needless to say, it was declined.

"I'm afraid, I must decline." Was Lancer's reply. "I may give the Grail to but one man: my new avowed lord. Not to you, Saber." Archer was a bit more... violent with her response. Which consisted of her banishing one of her bayonet knives at Saber. He deflected it with his sword, of course, but it still got the message across: the white-haired girl had no intentions of joining him either.

This was followed by Lancer's master temporarily forgetting about being nearly killed by Archer mere minute ago and making some threat against Saber's own master – apparently named Waver Velvet. The boy was scared to tears until his servant calmed him down somewhat by claiming that he'd rather have him than a coward who was hiding.

"...Anyway." Saber continued. "Since my negotiations have apparently failed, I shall conquer you all by force! And those other, as well skulking in the darkness, gather here and now! Those too craven to show themselves shall draw the scorn of Iskandar, King of Conquerors!" A couple of moments passed, before another servant materialized from golden spark not far away from them, standing arrogantly on a lamppost. Archer's reflexive reaction to his appearance was to send her knife – the very one she had attacked Saber not too long ago – at him. Once again, it was deflected, this time by a magical golden armor of the newly-arrived servant.

"A lesser being claims to be king, even in my presence? And another one dares to attack me?" The new servant spoke arrogantly, while air behind him shimmered into multiple ripples with various weaponry sticking out of those ripples. "Your punishment shall be death." Having chosen Archer to die first as a worse offender, the King of Heroes released the weapons from his treasury.

The white-haired servant, though, merely raised her hand, making the deadly projectiles stop in the midair. Cocking her head to the side slightly, she turned the weapons back at their original owner. Then she banished them towards Gilgamesh, who protected himself by returning the assortment of swords, maces, spears and halberds back to his treasury.

"Interesting one you are, mongrel. You amuse the King, yet your fate remains the same: you shall die!" The Gate of Babylon was opened even further this time, but once again Archer managed to stop all of the weapons fired before they could hurt her... Seeing as she was currently occupied, Lancer decided that it was his chance and so he attacked – they weren't in a proper duel after all.

"Archer!" Irisviel shouted. Her warning was an unneeded one though: the whitehead knew she was about to be attacked the very moment Lancer thought about it. And she simply blew him away with a powerful shock-wave as soon as he got close enough. That was followed by the arsenal she kept suspended in midair being launched at recovering servant of spear, forcing him to expend his strength on evading the multiple projectiles.

Suddenly another servant appeared on the battlefield. Berserker. The knight in black armor was surrounded by a black mist. Letting out a sound that eerily similar to that of a metal under high strain, he charged at Gilgamesh, who tried to screw him from almost point blank by firing multiple weapons from his noble phantasm. Somehow, despite being obviously under the mad enhancement, Berserker managed to dodge, catch or deflect all of them with a precision unexpected from someone of his class.

The King of Heroes was about to attack again – this time he was really serious as the Gate of Babylon now seemingly spread across half of the sky – but he suddenly stopped, before muttering several not very nice words about his master. Then he canceled his noble phantasm and walked away, dissipating into a myriad of golden sparks.

For a moment nothing moved on the battlefield. Then Berserker attacked, charging madly at Archer. Apparently, he could see that the white-haired girl was the biggest threat out there. What he failed to understand that he alone didn't really have any chances at winning against her... Lancer's master, though, decided that this was a perfect opportunity to remove this overpowered Archer from the war. Thus, he ordered his servant to help Berserker.

Diarmuid too jumped into the battle, but almost immediately he found himself caught by Archer's psychokinesis. Then he was roughly thrown at Berserker, who was ready to catch him on a make-shift pike. Somehow, Lancer managed to avoid being impaled, only to see two crates speeding at them from different sides. He barely managed to escape unharmed. The black knight, being a bit more slow in his mind, didn't. Not that it was enough to finish him off.

Archer could sense that too, and as soon as the mad servant started pushing his way out of the remains of two crates, she dropped another one on him. Then one more. And yet another one... Lancer tried to attack her again, coming from what he thought was her blind spot. Only to get blown away again by that shock-wave. How in seven hells he was supposed to fight someone he couldn't come close? He briefly considered trying to throw her spears at her, but after Archer's display of power against that golden-clad servant, Diarmuid knew that the most he'd achieve this way would be losing his weapons.

Meanwhile, Berserker proved to be a durable bastard and was pushing his way out of the destroyed crates. Archer reacted by banishing more rubble towards the mad servant, followed by a couple of her explosive darts. Unfortunately for her, the black knight completely ignored the debris and managed to knock the darts out of the air before they could blow up in his face.

It was then Saber decided to join the fight, once again riding his chariot. But since it had the subtlety of a thunder on a good day, Archer didn't even need her special detection abilities to 'see' it coming. Though, she still had to – _finally_ – move away from the spot she was as she dodged this charge, she had one of her darts hit the barely protected back of Saber – the man had been too busy with holding the reins to properly protect himself in time.

The black knight came charging at her, his makeshift weapon raised above his head, ready for strike. Archer tried to blow him away with yet another shock-wave, but he stuck the piece of armature he held in his hands into the ground and remained where he was, before attacking her again. Having to recovered her energy for a new shock-wave yet, and not being able to capture him with her psychokinesis, the white-haired servant had to hope that Berserker's attack would be stopped by her shield.

It was, though the barrier was also destroyed. But it still gave Archer that brief moment she needed to build up the energy for another shock-wave. And this time she did manage to blow the mad servant away. Another moment later, and she recreated her bubble-like shield around herself.

"Alright. Enough of this games." She hissed. A moment later pretty much everything in the docks that wasn't screwed to the ground was lifted into the air. Even the remains of an old fishing trawler that must have weight a couple thousands tons. Lancer and Saber looked at each other. This was not good, not good at all...

* * *

**Archer / Launcher**

True identity: codename Libra, Psi-Corps division field commando  
Series: "_**Mental Omega 3.0**_" mod for "_**Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge**_" RTS  
Age: unknown, appears to be 17-19  
Sex: Female

Alignment: Chaotic Evil (according to Yuri's forces) / Lawful Evil (according to enemy troops)  
Strength: D  
Endurance: C  
Agility: B+  
Mana: C+  
Luck: D  
Independent action: C  
Magic resistance: E+ (*) - see the list of Libra's psychic powers.  
Clairvoyance: D+ - Libra is an enhanced human and has improved sense of sight.  
Battle Continuation: B+  
Eye of the Mind (false): A++ (*) - see the list of Libra's psychic powers.  
Riding: C - Libra has implanted knowledge needed to operate all modern vehicles that need as little as one driver, however, she has no real-life experience. She is also unable to operate vehicles with non-standard controls, nor she is able to ride animals.

Noble Phantasms:  
**Psi-agent: power of one's mind**: As a genetically-engineered and artificially-enhanced human, Libra is one of the strongest psychics in the world, possibly even stronger than her creator and her master Yuri. However, due to her personality issues, Libra is incapable of controlling others' minds and has to rely on her other psychic powers instead (*):  
* **Partial empathy**: C++, support, permanently active. Libra can detect any ill will directed at herself in a wide range. This ability works only on biological organisms, and thus, golems, robotic or remotely-controlled drones are 'invisible' to her. Libra also can't sense any positive emotions and feelings, which might be a reason for her unstable, violent and cruel personality. This detection ability supersedes Presence concealment skill of up to and including A rank.  
* **Psychic oppression**: D, anti-army, permanently active. Actually, a side effect of Libra's powers. Those who spend a lot of time in her presence get snappish, impatient and start finding it difficult to think with rational thoughts. Homunculi appear to be immune to these effects.  
* **Mind mastery**: A, support, permanently active. Libra is immune to all forms of 'conventional' mind control. She may even reject a single order from the command seal if she doesn't agree with it. Repeated order, however, will take the effect. She also can suppress her emotions at will, allowing this to count as Bravery skill of equal rank.  
* **Levitation**: C, support. Libra can raise herself and anything in touch with her body into the air. As long as she's conscious, she can sustain this ability indefinitely. Because she uses it to move around all the time, her leg muscles are partially atrophied, making it very tiring for her to walk.  
* **Psi-shield**: B+, defensive. Libra can manifest a protective bubble in the form of an energy-absorb shield around herself. This shield works equally well against physical and magical attacks and can completely stop a 12.7mm rifle bullet or two-verses direct attack spell fired from point blank. More powerful attack will break this shield, though.  
* **Psychic Shock Wave**: C, anti-person, anti-platoon. Libra can release an omnidirectional shock wave that can blow lighter objects away from her.  
* **Psychokinesis I**: B+, support, defensive, anti-person, anti-army. Libra can move multiple object around with just her will. She doesn't need to maintain constant visual contact with the objects she uses this ability on. There also is virtually no limit to the number of objects she can control simultaneously, but the bigger and heavier the objects are, the lesser is the maximal speed she can move them with. The Grail imposed a limit of one force application vector per living target to prevent Libra from tearing her opponents apart with this ability. Additionally, the Grail made this count as an A-rank magical attack, meaning that those with high resistance can shrug Libra's psychokinesis off themselves easily.  
* **Psychokinesis II**: Ex, anti-army, anti-fortress. Essentially, this is the same with the one above, but on a scale where it can as well be considered a form of gravity manipulation: Libra can raise entire dreadnoughts into the air before letting them fall down towards their destruction. However, using her abilities on such a scale damages Libra's body and it is suppressed by CAS under normal conditions.

**Cerebral Amplifier / Suppressor **or** CAS**: C, item, support, anti-person (self). A device directly attached to Libra's spine. It suppresses the more powerful versions of her psychic powers while amplifying her lesser ones. CAS also serves as a container for explosive darts Libra often uses as her projectiles.

* * *

Yes, I know Libra turned out to be a bit over-powered for the Fourth Grail War, but... She's quite powerful in-game too, and has all of the mentioned above powers, save for the shock-wave. And, well, I did substitute her in-game detector ability with Empathetical sensing. Plus, while in the Fourth war the only one who can win against her in a one on one is Gilgamesh with Ea, in Fifth Grail War, Libra will lose to everyone but assassin (Sasaki) - pretty much all servants have skills or abilities that will let them one-shot Libra even though her shield.


	11. Saber II

**Saber**

'_I don't want to die!_' Shirou though as he... well, fell into the shed. Somehow, through the pure luck, bleeding cut on his finger touched a long-forgotten runic circle that had been drawn there on the ground maybe a decade ago. '_I don't want to die!_' He repeated in his mind while looking for something – anything – that might help him survive that lance-wielding freak that was out for his blood simply because he saw something he apparently shouldn't have...

The next moment the runic circle lit up with an eerie blue light, before a large cloud of thick smoke exploded, making it impossible to the red-haired teen to see anything. Then a powerful gust of wind blew this smoke away, revealing a very intimidating woman.

She was rather tall and slender, but not even for a moment Shirou doubted that she wasn't strong. She had waist-long blond hair that noticeably curled at the ends despite being otherwise relatively straight. Her eyes were light-blue and she had long eyelashes. Also, her lips were pink and full... All in all, she looked like a textbook image of some 'ice queen'. To absolutely complete this image, she was dressed in a World War I style blue military uniform, complete with white gloves and black combat boots. On her right hip there was a saber-like sword, while on the left one Shirou could see a pistol in a holster. Lying on the floor, he couldn't see her shoulder straps, but simply from the way she carried herself, he could easily tell that she was a high-ranked officer.

"Your will to live is admirable. Even if you are not the ...most powerful magus, I shall accept you as my master in this Grail War." The woman spoke, her eyes completely focused on Lancer who was still shocked by the fact that his soon-to-be-victim turned out to be the seventh master. "Now then..." The mysterious woman attacked, moving really really fast. She managed to catch the blue-clad master of spear by surprise and landed a hit on him. A hit powerful enough to sent him flying out of the shed and into the wall on the opposite side of the yard.

"**Miles**,.." The military princess spoke, addressing to someone. Almost instantly, a man – presumably Miles – materialized next to her. He had dark skin, white hair and his reddish eyes were hidden behind his snow-blindness goggles. He was wearing a similar blue military uniform, but with a darker-blue coat over it. "Protect the boy. There might be more enemies nearby." She ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!" Miles saluted, before moving to stand next to Shirou, an assault rifle held at the ready. Satisfied, the blonde general drew her pistol and shot at Lancer who had just raised himself back onto his feet. Somehow, the man managed to dodge bullet and instead of being killed, he got just a small would on his forearm. The blue-clad man rushed back at her, his blood-red spear ready, but before it could touch a single hair on the blonde's body, it was stopped by her sword. Then, the military princess threw him back a good dozen meter with but one arm...

"You are lucky to have major general accept you, boy. And as per her orders, I shall protect you with my life." Miles commented as he guarded his queen's master, while also watching her fight. He had no doubts in her victory, it was clear, but he appeared to be eager to see her in action.

Meanwhile, the fight in the Emiya residence's yard continued. Mostly, it consisted of Lancer coming at the blond beauty, before being thrown away. The blond swordswoman also tried to shoot him from time to time, but so far she managed to give her opponent only an assortment of light wounds.

Suddenly, Lancer's spear started glowing. It looked like the blue-clad man was preparing some sort of an uber attack, and both miles and major general could see it. Unfortunately, it seemed that neither knew what exactly that attack will be, so the military princess could only ready herself for anything.

"Your heart is mine! **Gae bolg!**" Lancer shouted. His spear then became a beam of red light that twisted and bended at impossible angles in order to reach its target... Somehow, though, the blond warrior did seemingly impossible and dodged this attack: instead of being killed by the spear piercing her heart, she only got a serious wound.

"Major General!" Miles shouted, scared that he might lose his queen. He needn't have worried that much as while her wound was serious, it was not serious enough to stop her. Gripping the shaft of the spear, she ripped it out of her body, simultaneously once again throwing Lancer across the yard with her inhuman strength.

"Nice weapon you have here." The swordswoman commented, before throwing it at its original owner with such speed that to Shirou it turned into another beam of red light. And the blue-clad man now was pinned to the wall with his own spear sticking out of his shoulder. "Now... Let's find out who you are..." She continued as she began walking towards her downed enemy, her saber in one hand and her pistol in another. Apparently, the wound she had just suffered was not as serious as it first looked... Or maybe she just healed this inhumanly fast?

"I would love to fight you, Saber." Lancer spoke, raising his head to look at her. "But I'm afraid, my master's order was to retreat, should my spear be dodged. See you again soon." He said, before simply vanishing, along with his spear.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" Miles spoke as he seemingly phased next to his queen, who now had a somewhat pained expression on her face. Apparently, she wasn't as tough as she wanted Lancer to think she was... Major general looked at him for a long second, before she finally answered:

"I should be fine in time for our next guests to arrive. I shall ask you to be ready to provide me with some support. I'm not sure I can take another such opponent all on my own right now." The dark-skinned man saluted, before 'blinking' back next to Shirou in order to guard him per his earlier order. Maybe twenty seconds passed, before a strange pair walked into the yard.

One of the two was a tall and dark-skinned man with white hair, dressed in a black armor with a red cape over it. The other one was ...Tohsaja Rin, a schoolmate of Shirou.

**~/ *** \~**

Shirou's visit to the church had been ...enlightening. Even if he absolutely detested the idea of a game where people killed each other. But with no easy way out and a chance to keep causalities at minimum, he accepted his role as Saber's master.

Now, he was returning home, Saber and Rin accompanying him, when they ran into a weird pair on one of the deserted streets of the night Fuyuki city. First, there was a seemingly-young girl with white hair and red eyes, dressed as if she had just escaped from tundra. Just behind her there stood a gray-skinned colossus in bronze armored-skirt with a ridiculously-large axe-club made from a slab of rock held in his hand.

"Good evening, onii-chan." The girl greeted. "This is the second time we meet." And while the red-haired teen was wondering why this girl was calling him 'onii-chan', Rin was more interested in the giant that was with her.

"This is not good, her servant is very strong." The Tohsaka heir commented, visibly ready to summon her Archer in order to defend herself.

"Pleased to meet you, Rin." The unknown girl replied, while doing a reverence. "I'm Ilya. Ilyasviel von Einzbern. Understand?" Apparently, the dark-haired beauty knew some secret significance behind that name. "But I don't think any more salutations will be necessary, since you'll all be dying here." Shirou let out a surprised 'ah' at this proclamation. "All right, I'll be killing you then. Do it, Berserker!"

The gray-skinned giant proved to be surprisingly fast for someone of his size. Monstrously powerful too: even though Saber did block his axe-club, everyone could see that even with her great strength her hands were shaking slightly... But while the Berserker was physically stronger, Saber was faster and more agile, so she sidestepped, allowing the huge weapon to crush the asphalt on the ground, before delivering a powerful roundhouse kick, sending the giant flying backwards... Apparently, the purple-clad white-haired girl was not all that happy with such a turn of events.

"Berserker, kill them!" She ordered again, this time without any playfulness in her voice. The colossus that was her servant let out a mighty roar, before raising his crude weapon over his head. But instead of charging at Saber, he simply smashed it against the ground, causing a massive chasm appear. However, this attack was a slow one and the blue-clad major general had problems with evading it.

And drawing her pistol, she fired at least a dozen of bullets at her opponent. Somehow, though, they all ricocheted harmlessly from the giant's bare chest. Saber raiser her eyebrow at such ridiculous endurance that the Berserker was demonstrating, before her pistol got replaced with an RPG. And a moment later the mad servant was struck by a magically-amplified grenade that managed to completely envelope his humongous body in the fire of an explosion... When the smoke cleared, everyone could see Berserker rising from a crater, an obviously fatal wound on his chest healing as if it was a mere scratch.

"I see..." The military princess muttered under her breath. "You are a tough bastard, but are fit enough to survive in front of the **fort Briggs**?" Suddenly a ring of fire spread from Saber, enveloping everyone on the street... When Shirou could see again, he found himself standing on the top of the giant dam-like fortress located in a narrow valley between snow-covered mountains. Somewhere far away on the ground he could make out the Berserker who was looking around, trying to understand what had just happened.

"Reality marble?" Rin asked from behind Shirou, apparently also amazed by this feat of magic.

"Briggs soldiers, destroy our enemy!" Major general ordered, giving a wave with her sword. The very next moment the Berserker found himself under the bombardment from the many cannons, mortars, tanks and personal weapons that the firepower of the fortress was composed of...

* * *

**Saber**

True identity: Major general Olivier Mira Armstrong  
Series: "_**Full Metal Alchemist**_"  
Age: unknown, ~30  
Sex: Female

Alignment: Lawful Good  
Strength: A+  
Endurance: B  
Agility: A  
Mana: C  
Luck: D  
Independent action: C+  
Magic resistance: D+  
Battle Continuation: B  
Bravery: A  
Eye of the Mind (false): B - Olivier is an experienced fighter and has a developed 'sixth sense'.  
Eye of the Mind (true): C+ - Olivier is a skilled and experienced military commander.  
Military Tactics: B+  
Discernment of the poor: C  
Riding: D - Olivier has some experience in driving tanks, automobiles and horse-pulled carriages.  
Weapons: Firearms: C+ - Olivier is skilled with firearms, and can use anything from pistols to RPG with deadly skill and precision. She also can operate heavier cannons,both stationary and tank-mounted

Noble Phantasms:  
**Armstrong blood**: D, support, permanently active. Actually a bloodline trait that grants all members of the Armstrong family physical strength far exceeding that of a normal human. True extents of Olivier's physical strength are unknown, but it is presumed that she was at least twenty times as strong as someone of the same build while still alive. Additionally, as the primary heir of the family, Olivier is in possession of the Armstrong heirloom sword (it is not a noble phantasm).

**Briggs stalwarts**: A+, support. An abnormal noble phantasm that allows Olivier to summon any of the soldiers that were under her command to aid her in the battles. They are summoned as heroic spirits with E+ independent action and can be using up to C-rank noble phantasms of their own. Number of such summoned heroic spirits is not limited, but Olivier herself is unable to sustain more than two at once because of her relatively-small prana pool. Most often, the summoned heroic spirits will be adjutant Miles and captain Buccaneer.

**Fort Briggs**: A+, support, anti-army. A reality marble noble phantasm that brings fort Briggs into temporary existence. Olivier and her allies are placed on the wall of the dam-like fortress, while her enemies find themselves on the ground on the Drachma side. Inside this reality marble Olivier has access to the entire military power of the fortress, including tanks, mounted cannons as well as the entire garrison. Heroic spirits summoned through Briggs stalwarts noble phantasm do not spend their prana while inside this reality marble, nor will they disappear if the reality marble is dispelled or forcefully destroyed.


	12. Rider II

**Rider**

The thick clouds of smoke that the runic array had released, was preventing Waver Velvet from seeing exactly what he had just summoned, but the young magus was quite sure that he did summon some awesomely-powerful entity that will ensure him a successful voyage through the dangers of the Holy Grail War...

When Waver had first discovered the existence of the Holy Grail War, he immediately knew that it was his place: a war, where only strength mattered and not titles and nobility. After all, in all of his time in Clock Tower, he had been looked down on because his family was a third generation Magus family. The fact that he possessed a lot of raw power didn't mean a shit to those inbred bigot fools, who dared to mock him for his rebellious thoughts that magus' powers depended on his personal potential and not on his breeding...

This war was his chance to prove them all wrong! Waver was sure that the omnipotent Grail will surely grant him the recognition and acceptance that he deserved. And the servant he had just summoned with his teacher's, Kayneth Archibald, catalyst will help him in this endeavor!

Eventually, the smoke disappeared, revealing the summoned hero. It was a rather tall man, dressed in a rough white shirt with a black leather jacket over it, blue pants and black combat boots. He was also wearing thick black gloves with many straps and a bigger strap going across his torso from his left shoulder to his right hip – it had a number of rifle rounds on it. Finally, in his right hand the heroic spirit held an assault rifle unlike any that Waver had ever seen.

The man had tanned skin and some good muscles, though one would never call him a body-builder. His face looked tire, and the shaggy dirty-brown hair and roughly-cut beard and mustaches didn't really help there. But even a single look into the man's eyes was enough to tell that he was a powerful and experienced warrior...

"So... I guess, you are my master for this Grail war, boy." The summoned heroic spirit observed. "I'm Rider and I shall lead us to victory."

**~/ *** \~**

During the first battle of the war, Rider behaved more like Archer. Hell, even Assassin wouldn't be too far from the truth. Instead of rushing onto the battlefield, the heroic spirit chose to stay at a safe distance – namely, on top of the bridge – and tried to snipe an enemy servant or two from a sniper rifle he got from somewhere...

Judging by the fact that he could see the destruction caused by the said rifle's shot seven from such a distance, Waver knew it was a really powerful weapon. Unfortunately, neither Lancer nor Saber were an easy target, and Rider failed to leave more than a scratch on either of the two. Berserker that had showed up a bit later was not as lucky, and the black knight now had a gaping hole through his left shoulder.

But that battle was in the past. Now, Rider, Saber and Lancer were forced into a temporary alliance to stop the colossal Ktulhu-like beast that Caster had summoned in his delusional attempt to do something to resurrect his ...crush? Unfortunately, even if the Caster's deed endangered the very existence of the Fourth Grail War, Archer and Berserker refused to help there – the former because he didn't want to dirty his weapons, and the later because he was too busy trying to off Archer.

Anyway, since the monster was still in the middle of the river, Lancer couldn't even approach it. Saber, due to some blessing, could walk on the water, but even if her sword could cut the beast up, it regenerated far too quickly for that to do any real damage. Likewise, Rider's shots were easily ignored by the tentacled colossus, and the grenades launched by his hovering attack cycle were no more effective than Saber's sword.

"Looks like there is no choice. I will have to use my most powerful noble phantasm." Rider said as his hoverbike landed next to where Waver was standing. "You will have to order me do it, though... I'm not sure I have enough prana to do that without a command seal empowering me."

"Very well... **Rider, by the power of the command seal I order you to use your noble phantasm!**" Glowing for a brief moment, one of the the command seals that Waver Velvet had disappeared. Rider cranked his next.

"Thanks kiddo, I needed this." He said. Then there was a burst of prana so powerful that even normal people could feel it across the entire damn city... There was one problem, though – whatever that did, Waver couldn't see the result. To his it looked almost like his servant had just waster so much power for nothing.

Then, a lightning stroke, its electric light illuminating something above the clouds. The British teen magus couldn't really see what it was, but he was quite that that thing was big. No, it was enormous. It looked like a giant flying hammer with square wings on the sides. Waver was not sure about how big this flying fortress was, but he could estimate it to be at least four hundreds meters long... Now he could easily understand why Rider had asked him to spend a command seal in order to summon this thing – most likely even a proper Caster wouldn't have enough prana on his own for such a feat.

Somewhere up in the air Gilgamesh suddenly felt that his flying chariot wasn't oh-so-superior anymore. Sure, that huge contraption was not something that he'd ever consider a treasure, unlike his Vimana, but it was clear to the golden-clad King that the warship above him was very powerful...

Back on the ground, Rider activated his communication device.

"Jimmy to Hyperion bridge." He called. And a moment later he received a response, though it looked like only he could understand it, thanks to various radio noises... "I have a target for ya." Another quite incomprehensible response later, the flying fortress turned powerful projectors on, showering Caster's beast in bright light. Another moment later, a laser shots started raining upon the Ktulhu-like monster. Though it looked like they weren't enough to do anything more that slow that monstrosity down... Rider gritted his teeth, before issuing his next order: "Permission to use the Yamato cannon." Then he turned to his fellow heroic spirits and their master that stood there on the levee, observing the battle: "I suggest you clutch onto something." He said, while his exoskeleton anchored him to the ground with four steel reinforcing ropes.

Lancer and Saber both struck their weapons into the ground and gripped them tightly, apparently sure that this will be enough. Waver quickly hid behind his servant's wide back, while Saber's master moved behind Rider's hoverbike...

Looking upwards, everyone could see the flying fortress that Rider had summoned building up a large ball of orange plasma in front of its hammer 'head'. Then this plasma rushed downwards almost like a very thick beam, completely engulfing the monster that Caster had summoned. There was a bright flash, followed by shockwave that smashed all windows facing this direction within several miles...

When they could see again, it became clear that this attack had completely annihilated both Caster and his beast. It had also vaporized half of the rives, and water rushing into this empty space was creating almost tsunami-like waves.

"Damn." Waver muttered under his breath. He had no other words to describe what he had just witnessed.

* * *

**Rider**

True identity: Marshal James Eugene 'Jim' Raynor  
Series: "_**Star Craft**_" sagas  
Age: unknown, ~30  
Sex: Male

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral  
Strength: C (B+ while wearing exoskeleton armor)  
Endurance: C (B+ while wearing exoskeleton armor)  
Agility: B  
Mana: B  
Luck: D  
Independent action: C+  
Magic resistance: E+ (*)  
Battle Continuation: B  
Eye of the Mind (false): C++  
Military tactics: C+++  
Riding: C+ - Jim can ride any vehicle that requires only one driver. He can also ride common animals. Furthermore, Jim can command larger vessels with relative ease.

Noble Phantasms:  
**Mk12 sniper rifle**: C+, item, anti-unit. A sniper rifle that Raynor carries around along with the Gauss rifle he normally uses. The rumors say, this sniper rifle is a gift from his one time lover Sarah Kerrigan. Whether that is true or not, this rifle is possibly one of the most powerful personal firearms in existence. A single shot from it will leave a gaping hole in the armor of a siege tank. Similarly, any heroic spirit will be killed (once) if the bullet finds their head or heart.

**CMC-400-JER exoskeleton armor**: B, item, support, defensive. A custom exoskeleton armor, painted black with a white skull painted on visor. When he is wearing this armor, Jim Raynor receives a great boost to his endurance and strength. This exoskeleton also increases Jim's rate of healing and grants him immunity from any direct-damage single-action spells.

**Vulture combat hoverbike**: C, unit, anti-unit. Fast and agile, this hoverbike allows Raynor to quickly cross large distances, even across the bodies of water. Additionally, Vulture is armed with RPG-launcher and carries a number of miniature but deadly mines.

**Behemoth-class battlecruiser Hyperion**: Ex, unit, anti-army, anti-fortress. "Hyperion" was Jim Raynor's flagship during the later stages of the Great War. She is armed with multiple laser gun turrets and a fearsome Yamato cannon. Her armor is so tough, that she can survive a direct hit from a tactical nuke. However, because of her huge size and massive history, summoning "Hyperion" onto the battlefield requires an incredible amount of prana.

* * *

It was so damn hard to choose between Jimmy for Rider, Tassadar for Caster and Duran for Assassin. In the end, I decided that Jimmy was the best choice as finding Riders is harder. ^^


	13. Lancer II

**Lancer**

Bazett Fraga McRemitz checked the summoning circle she had drawn once again. Everything appeared to be perfect, and the purplish-haired woman got ready to finally meet her childhood hero, Cú Chulainn. She was sure that the hound of Culann – the one whose very blood was said to be flowing through her veins – would be the perfect servant for her. And, together, they'll win this war! Deciding that it was the time to finally call him to this world, Bazett activated the summoning circle.

But as soon as she finished the ritual, she knew that something did not go right. The entire warehouse she used for her summoning became filled with smoke, yet no matter how thick it was, this smoke couldn't hide what she had summoned completely. And it was something very very big: even though it appeared to be kneeling, it was at least nine meters tall. The amount of prana it was using to keep itself in this world was also incredible, and had Bazett not being as awesome as she was, she would have keeled over simply from how great the drain was...

Finally, the smoke faded away, revealing to the purplish-haired magus just what she had summoned. It was a humanoid creature covered with mostly-blue armor with black and white here and there. There also was a pair of pylons on the thing's shoulders. The armored giant was probably around damn forty meters tall and while it was humanoid, its torso and limbs were proportionally-longer that human's while its head – which had only one orange eye – was smaller. Finally, in its right arm, the monstrosity held a blood-red two-pronged spear that just as big as its owner.

Deciding to take a peek as her abnormal servant's stats, Bazett couldn't help but let out a whistle: the thing she had summoned was powerful. Very powerful. Maybe, the ridiculous cost she was paying with her prana to keep it in this world wasn't all that bad for the power her servant possessed... Though, the purplish-haired magus had her doubts that the Grail War could remain a secret once this giant appeared on the battlefield. You can't really hide something like that... Even with liberal applications of magecraft. Oh well...

**~/ *** \~**

Gilgamesh raised his golden eyebrow when a visibly-unhappy Kirei stumbled into their secret chamber under the church. Quickly scanning the man, the King of Heroes immediately found the reason for his state: the fake priest did not have any new command seals anywhere on his body – for some reason he had failed to steal Lancer from some mongrel woman like he had been planning to. Though considering that the church's executioner was still alive and in one piece, the red-eyed blond-haired heroic concluded that there wasn't even a fight for the right of controlling Lancer. Interesting...

"Something went not like you've planned, Kirei?" The King of Uruk asked as brought a glass of the finest wine from his treasury to his lips. The supposed mediator of the Fifth Holy Grail War shot a glare at the haughty demi-god of a Servant.

"Lancer summoned was not some ...one-" Gilgamesh did note the pause that the fake priest made. "That would suit our plans. And I suspect that taking it out of picture entirely will take some time. Bazett appeared to be aware that I've been observing her summoning. She suspects that I may want to eliminate her and will not lower her guards for me to actually do that."

"Is that so?" The King of Heroes asked. "What will you do then? It's not becoming of a King to show on the battlefield unaware of his enemies weaknesses." Kirei shot him another glare.

"Worry not, there are still three Servants to be summoned for this war. I'm sure that I can get someone to act as a reconnaissance for your majesty. Why, I'm sure my little student Rin would not expect me to stab her in the back the moment she summons her Servant."

"Backstabbing Tohsakas – the bastards that dared to turn one of my treasures into something that mongrels they call heroes can reach – seems to be something like you hobby now, Kirei." And with those words Gilgamesh dissipated into a shower of quickly-fading golden sparkles...

**~/ *** \~**

Rider of the Fifth Holy Grail War sized up the blue-armored giant of a Lancer that she apparently had to fight against. It sized her too. Then it stepped on her.

_**AN**_: _Sorry, I couldn't resist the last part._

* * *

**Lancer**

True identity: Evangelion prototype Unit-00  
Series: "_**Neon Genesis Evangelion**_"  
Age: _unknown  
_Sex: _undefined_

Alignment: n/a  
Strength: Ex – Eva-00 can throw a spear weighting over a dozen of tons straight onto the Earth's orbit.  
Endurance: Ex – Even without AT field Evangelion unit can shrug off ridiculous amount of damage. With it... it is practically invincible.  
Agility: B  
Mana: n/a  
Luck: E-  
Independent action: E  
Magic resistance: E  
Battle Continuation: A++ - essentially, nothing short of making it unable to move will make it stop.  
Divinity: E- - Evangelion-00 is a human-made clone of one of the progenitor Angels. It can be considered a husk of a God with an incomplete human soul residing inside it.  
Inhuman Anatomy: B - Evangelion-00 is a humanoid clone of one of the progenitor Angels. While it looks somewhat like a scaled-up human, it has only one eye in the center of its comparably small head.

Noble Phantasms:  
**Lance of Longinus**: A+, item. An extraterrestrial semi-living artifact by default appearing as a Evangelion-sized red two-pronged spear with inherently double-helical structure. It has some metamorphic capabilities and can alter its shape according to user's or even its own will. Lance of Longinus is an "anti-God" weapon and it will completely ignore any divine protections like AT-field its target may have.

**AT-field**: Ex, defensive. A divine protection that Evangelion-00 possesses as a clone of one of the progenitor Angels. It's AT-field can protect it even from a direct hit from a nuclear bomb, but it can't be used as long as Evangelion-00 holds Lance of Longinus in its hands.

**Self-destruction**: Ex, anti-fortress, anti-army. While strictly speaking it's not a Noble Phantasm as it is not something unique to Evangelion-00, it is powerful enough to qualify as such. Activation of Evangelion-00's self destruction will create an explosion capable of atomizing anything within a mile radius.


	14. Caster II

**Caster**

"Do you think demons exist kiddo?" Uryuu Ryuunosuke began, already liking the kid's expression. "The news keeps calling me a demon, but I think that's a little rude if demons actually do exist, don't you think so?" Uryuu waved his ancestors' notes at the kid. "You know, I found this old book while digging around my storehouse! It looks like my ancestors were trying to summon demons. So like, I gotta see if demons actually do exist! But if one actually does pop out, I'd have to be pretty dumb to not offer it something. So kid…" He then patted the boy's shivering head and asked, "If a demon actually comes, do you mind if we let it kill you?"

"MHHH!" The boy cried into his gags and began thrashing around in a desperate attempt to get free.

"Ahahahaha!" Uryuu laughed while jumping up and down. "I wonder what it's like being killed by a demon! I bet it would be pretty coo-ow!" Uryuu then grimaced as his right hand felt like it was on fire, and looked down to see three scythe-like red crimson markings appear on it. The circle then began to glow before billowing out smoke.

When the smoke finally cleared, the mad mass-murdering young man could see that he had summoned something. Someone actually – a tall man in his late forties. He had light-brown hair, most of which was short and spiky, save for three thin braid on the back of his head. His eyes were hidden behind round black glasses, but a tattoo that looked like a barbed wire drawn across his face at the eye level could still be seen. The ...demon was wearing long light-gray overcoat with a high collar and ridiculously long sleeves; it also had a strange symbol in blood-red on its back and two pairs of... some sort of protrusions on the shoulders. The rest of the summoned man's garb consisted of dark-gray pants and black combat boots.

"Cool!" Ryuunosuke exclaimed as he observed the Servant he had just summoned – not that he knew about that. "See, boy, I've summoned a demon and now you will become his dinner! Isn't it cool!" The boy in question once again tried to free himself, but he had once again failed – Uryuu had tied him pretty well.

"I'm afraid, I'm not a demon." The summoned man stated. "Nor I will eat this little yellow heretic." Ryuunosuke artistic mood seemed to evaporate instantly. "But I will be more than happy to purge this thing from the face of the Earth. Want me to do this in a... creative way?" Now, Uryuu was grinning madly again.

"Ma-a-an! You're so cool!" The mad mass-murdered exclaimed. "What, what do I have to do? Tell me!" The still-unnamed man thought about it for a moment, before replying:

"Bring me some water." Ryuunosuke, who definitely wasn't expecting something like this, but still hurried to get his fellow 'artist' what he had asked. Meanwhile, the Caster of the Fourth Holy Grail War approached his soon-to-be first purge target within this world. "Listen here, filth, I will kill you now: yellow heretics like you don't deserve to live. Your death will be long and painful, and I want to hear every second of it, got it?" Then he turned to his summoner, who was carrying him a bucket full of clean water.

"Here you go." Uryuu said as placed the bucket next to cloaked man. "Now show me how you kill this kid!" The summoned man let a cruel smirk make its way onto his face, before he bent backwards and placed his apparently-gloved hand into the water. Then, much to Ryuunosuke's shock the bucket itself melted, while some clear but highly-acidic liquid was hanging in the air around the not-demon's hand.

"Time for a purge, kid." The cloaked man said, before ...well, throwing the liquid at the kid. Within seconds the clothes on him began melting, followed by the body flesh. And since the little boy was no longer gagged, he was screaming his throat raw as the deadly acid dissolved him.

"That was so-o-o-o co-o-o-ol, man!" Ryuunosuke exclaimed, as he processed the way his new 'partner' had killed the kid. The not-demon allowed another smirk creep onto his face.

"Good, I'm glad you've enjoyed the show!" Then his smirk turned even more malicious than the one he wore when dealing with the kid. "Because you're a yellow heretic too, I have to purge you!" The underground chamber then started filling with light yellow-green gas that was pure chlorine. Needless to say, Ryuunosuke didn't last long, but at least he got to enjoy his own torturous death...

**~/ *** \~**

Before the night was over, all remaining six masters had received a missive, where Risei Kotomine was telling that Caster had went berserk and, after killing his own master, started eliminating the local population by gassing them Chlorine. Since it appeared that Caster had no intentions but to kill anyone he laid his eyes on, Risei felt that giving the remaining masters some information about this abominable Servant was not a bad thing to do.

And to further motivate the masters to kill Caster, Risei also promised the three command seals (taken from the Uryuu Ryuunosuke's body) to the one who managed to rid the world of the walking gas chamber that this Caster character apparently was.

* * *

By pure coincidence, Waver and Rider were the first ones to find Caster. The two of them were simply returning from the local mall with some groceries when they caught a glimpse of the rogue Servant disappearing into a side alley. Already knowing when that not-Heroic spirit had done, the two of them immediately followed him, ready to end his existence.

**~/ *** \~**

Caster was observing some local school from a distance. While he didn't really care whether some yellow saw him at work – he will kill them all anyway – he wanted to be the most effective with his kills, and so he waited for when there will be the greatest concentration of the yellow heretics at this location... His thoughts, however, were interrupted when far from subtle, lightning-spewing bull-driven chariot entered the street where he currently was. Since that could only be some other Servant's noble phantasm, Caster knew that this time he had to be really serious. Even if his opponent wasn't Rider, being run over by a massive chariot didn't sound like a fun way to start a day to him...

Caster managed to dodge the chariot's charge, though not completely as he was both thrown aside by something attached to its massive wheels and electrocuted by the lightnings. And while that had hurt, a lot actually, it placed his quite close to a puddle that was there on the asphalt after the rain that had happened this last night. And having some water to use...

Iskandar was shocked when Caster managed to wound his divine bulls and destroy the reins (along with half the front of the chariot) by throwing some clear liquid at it. And now that he and his masted had dismounted, the abomination of a Servant was preparing another acidic attack in hope of killing them both... No, that wouldn't do.

Rider charged at the other Servant, ready to behead him with his short sword, but much to his surprise, Caster managed to dodge quite easily and haven't even lost his control over that acid, which he immediately threw at Waver in a form of a homing stream. Needing to protect his master, Alexander had to stop trying to chop Caster into pieces; quickly taking of his red cloak, he threw it over Waver, thus protecting him from the deadly liquid... Damn, he liked his cloak so much...

"This madness shall stop now." Iskandar exclaimed and a moment later a ring of ghostly fire burst from his body. Then both Rider and Caster disappeared, leaving a shocked Waver alone in the back alley.

* * *

Rider and Caster found themselves in the center of the endless desert. Sure, Alexander thought, maybe using his reality marble against such an opponent was a bit of an overkill, but he simply couldn't allow this bastard to harm his master. And with how Caster was throwing those blobs of acid around, it would have been an almost impossible task had they remained in the proper reality.

"So... You took water away from me. Clever." The mad acid-using genocidal Servant stated. "And this place is so-o huge. It'll not be an easy task, but I still can turn into into my gas chamber! You shan't stop me, Rider, as I have to rid this new world from heretics and..." Caster was forced to shut up and dodge as Iskandar charged at him again. "I see... Interrupting a man when he is speaking... how improper." And with those words he started releasing deadly gas from the sleeves of his coat. The rapidly-growing cloud forcing Rider to step back, lest he keeled over. "So... What are you going to do now?" Iskandar didn't need to answer as this very moment the vast army he had commanded during his life arrived: thousands of warriors appeared from behind the dunes like a living sea.

"Spearmen!" Alexander the Great commanded in a loud voice that could be heard for miles. "Kill this man!" And with a thunderous shout of agreement, at least two thousands of spearmen started throwing their weapons at Caster. And no matter how fast and agile the bastard was, dodging that many spears was beyond even him... Within just a couple of seconds he was screwed by a great number of spears in such a way that no normal human had even a faintest chance to survive. Yet, Rider didn't order his men to stop until Caster had disappeared in an explosion of sickly-green sparkles...

* * *

**Caster**

True identity: Croa 'the Purger'; also known as 'Gas Chamber' for the way he likes to kill his victims.  
Series: "_**Seikon no Quaser**_"  
Age: unknown, ~40  
Sex: Male

Alignment: Chaotic Evil  
Strength: C  
Endurance: C  
Agility: B+  
Mana: C+  
Luck: E  
Independent action: C+ - however he can gather prana needed to keep himself in this world from alternative sources.  
Magic resistance: D  
Battle Continuation: C  
Territory creation: E-  
Eye of the Mind (false): C

Noble Phantasms:  
**Quaser of Chlorine**: B++, support, anti-unit, anti-army, permanently active. Croa as a Quaser has control over the element of Chlorine. He can use this ability to create various gas attacks or, combining chlorine with water, he can create deadly acid, which he can control freely. This ability, though, has his relying on mystical energy he gets from maidens that experience strong emotions (he usually does the 'feeding' through rape).


End file.
